The Trump administration on Monday appeared to be quickly retreating from Elon Musk's request that all federal workers send emails to highlight their achievements and resignations by the end of the day.
Missive from Musk mirrored the tactics he used when he acquired social platform X in 2022. The allies or Trump chose major federal agencies, including FBI director Kash Patel, to tell workers to ignore the orders and to make decisions to their staff.
By Monday afternoon, the response to emails was voluntary, according to guidance from the Human Resources Administration (OPM). This is a clear signal that even within the administration, Musk sees it as over-the-top.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans criticized Musk, saying what he did was inappropriate.
“I don't think it's handled very well in terms of the surprise elements of that and the points,” said Sen. Sherry Moore Capito, RW.Va. “I think I was confused because I think there were a few different explanations. I think a little clarification about the spontaneous part would probably be good.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R Maine) said demand is out of masks.
“I was happy to see the new division and the head of the agency oppose it. It shouldn't be an Elon Musk call, I was happy to see the pushback,” Collins said.
Sources close to Trump's trajectory said Musk's carelessness in his communications and lack of respect for the head of the agency are at issue.
“Musk is taking water unnecessary. He underestimates Patel's political power, reduces Rubio, Gabbard, and carelessly, not just the macro 'cut' message, but also the Washington process. It also lacks sustainable and positive communication efforts to clarify what manages the daily IV drip of the media,” he said, referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Director of National Intelligence Tarsi Gabbard.
Federal employees received three sentences of emails from OPM on Saturday and instructed them to respond in five bullet points about what they had achieved last week by 11:59pm on Monday.
In another post in X, Musk, who is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut trillions of dollars in government spending, warned that a failed response would be “considered a resignation.” However, OPM revealed in new guidance to HR personnel at all agencies on Monday afternoon that email responses were voluntary and undermined the threat of musk.
President Trump on Monday in his first comment about his emails after he was particularly silent in his defense of Musk.
“There were a lot of geniuses in sending it. We're trying to find out if people are working, so we're sending letters to people saying, 'Tell me what you did last week.' If people don't respond, it's very possible that there are no such people or they're not working,” Trump said.
However, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) led him to work hard as “cold.”
“[Office of Management and Budget Director Russel Vought] I wanted to hurt the workforce. I think he does a pretty good job with that,” Warner said. It's going to drive away our best federal workers, and that's going to cost money in the end. ”
Administration officials, like in the weekend emails, have everything that comes out of masks worked with Trump, White House Chief Susie Wills and other senior advisers, and OPM should be considered directly from the president. He told Hill. White House components.
The email orders “really instruct each agency and department to come up with a system that works well for them,” officials said, and the “one-size approach” to cut the federal cut The government added that it was not.
Some agencies, such as the FBI and the State Department, have rules regarding sensitive national security information that cannot be sent via email, and officials say they are attributing several departments' response to these rules. I stated.
Patel has its own plan to implement FBI workforce cuts, and in a message to staff on Saturday he said, “When and if we need more information, we'll adjust the response. For now, we'll give you a quick response. Please stop.”
The FBI faces a lawsuit brought by its own agent after the Justice Department requested a detailed breakdown of the roles and actions performed by approximately 5,000 agents who worked on the case on January 6, 2021. It's there. The litigants were able to secure a commitment from the department not to disclose the names of the agents who cited the fear of retaliation after the exchange.
There was also a purge of top FBI leadership and a fire of prosecutors who worked on two Trump criminal cases. And Patel has been accused of directing the shooting by the FBI long before confirmation as an agency director.
Like Patel, Gabbard advised staff at Intelligence Community to not respond to emails. The State Department responds to requests on behalf of employees, a spokesman told The Hill.
The Department of Homeland Security leadership sent emails to more than 250,000 employees, and similarly instructed the Department of Justice and the Pentagon not to respond to emails.
Other Trump officials supported Musk and his demands, including Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, who shared his own five achievements on Monday since last week.In a post of x.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) instructed employees to stop all work earlier this month.
“CFPB leadership understands that certain work tasks have stopped,” said Adam Martinez, Chief Operating Officer of the agency. “If the task/work cannot be performed as a result, you can simply reply and refer to it that you are following the current outage.”
The response from the department head to the mask was claimed to be Stewart Burderley, who served in the administration of former President George W. Bush.
“In a more normal administration, the main decisions on the federal workforce go through the decision-making layers and layers, so everyone's views are taken into consideration before the announcement,” he said.
“That's clearly the opposite of the current approach, so we're seeing examples of agency heads blinded to tweets and Doge's statements. Each Cabinet Secretary said in a tribute to the President. You need to weigh how much you have and then order it,” he added.
The email, like other Doge's efforts, quickly elicited legal challenges.
The U.S. Government Employees Federation and several other unions expanded previous lawsuits against the Trump administration on Monday to challenge the mask threat to firefighters who have failed to respond to OPM emails.
Trump has broadly sought musk to target “waste, fraud and abuse” across the federal government, despite the fact that the tech billionaire remains unknown to his leading Doge team. It seems I gave it. The administration said last week in a court filing that Musk is neither a Doge employee nor a Doge administrator. Instead, Tesla's CEO claimed to be a senior adviser to the president and an employee of the “White House Office.”
Still, it appears that Musk is leading the charges. Saturday's email and previous emails in which federal employees resigned were noticeably similar to the steps that Mask took with X after getting it in 2022.
According to Republican strategist Chris Johnson, the clash marks the limits of mask pushing to approach governments like business. He emphasized that while many of Trump's appointees are primarily alongside Musk, he merely opposed his top-down strategy.
“This is ultimately a culmination of what we envisioned, and I think a lot of people are asking Elon to run a massive swath of government,” Johnson told Hill.
“The way the business is run is that you can do these big, massive actions from the top, and you've always bumped into the reality that the government is actually running,” he said. added.
As Doge continues to have a novel approach to the federal government, it is increasingly facing public pushback.
Only 42% of voters said they support Doge's work to cut federal spending, while 53% of voters said they disagree.Reuters/Ipsos pollsIt was released on Monday. Among Republicans, 82% said they support it, while Democrats only 9%.
But Trump directed a reporter to another poll on Monday, claiming that Musk's work is “very popular.”
The Harvard Cap/Harris poll found 72% of registered voters support agencies that focus on ensuring government efficiency, but the same poll shows that It turns out that mask-driven departments are split between voters with their personal data and national access.
Rebecca Beitsch and Al Weaver contributed.
