WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek on Monday from President Donald Trump鈥檚 cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.
Musk鈥檚 unusual demand has faced led by the president鈥檚 loyalists 鈥� including the FBI, State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon 鈥� which instructed their employees over the weekend not to comply. Lawmakers in both parties said that Musk鈥檚 mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue.
Trump over the weekend called for Musk to be more aggressive in his cost-cutting crusade through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and posted a meme on social media mocking federal employees who 鈥渃ried about Trump and Elon.鈥�
Musk鈥檚 team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the deadline 鈥� set in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST Monday 鈥� would lose their job.
Mass confusion followed on the eve of the deadline as some agencies resisted the order, others encouraged their workers to comply, and still others offered conflicting guidance.
One message on Sunday morning from the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instructed its roughly 80,000 employees to comply. That was shortly after the acting general counsel, Sean Keveney, had instructed some not to. And by Sunday evening, agency leadership issued new instructions that employees should 鈥減ause activities鈥� related to the request until noon on Monday.
鈥淚鈥檒l be candid with you. Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration鈥檚 priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the below email,鈥� Keveney said in an email viewed by The Associated Press that acknowledged a broad sense of 鈥渦ncertainty and stress鈥� within the agency.
Keveney laid out security concerns and pointed out some of the work done by the agency鈥檚 employees may be protected by attorney-client privilege: 鈥淚 have received no assurances that there are appropriate protections in place to safeguard responses to this email.鈥�
Democrats and even some Republicans, including Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, were critical of Musk鈥檚 ultimatum.
鈥淚f I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it鈥檚 like, please put a dose of compassion in this,鈥� Curtis, whose state has 33,000 federal employees, said on CBS鈥� 鈥淔ace the Nation.鈥� 鈥淭hese are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. ... It鈥檚 a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.鈥�
Newly confirmed , an outspoken Trump ally, instructed employees to ignore Musk鈥檚 request, at least for now.
鈥淭he FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,鈥� Patel wrote in an email confirmed by the AP. 鈥淲hen and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.鈥�
, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, sent his staff a message Sunday that may have caused more confusion.
鈥淟et me clarify: We will comply with this OPM request whether by replying or deciding not to reply,鈥� Martin wrote in the email obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management.
鈥淧lease make a good faith effort to reply and list your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I will, as I mentioned, have your back regarding any confusion,鈥� Martin continued. 鈥淲e can do this.鈥�
Officials at the Departments of State, Defense and Homeland Security were more consistent.
Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary of state for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers. 鈥淣o employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,鈥� Nagy wrote in an email.
Pentagon leadership instructed employees to 鈥減ause鈥� any response to Musk鈥檚 team, according to an email from Jules Hurst, the deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
The Homeland Security Department, meanwhile, told employees that 鈥渘o reporting action from you is needed at this time鈥� and that agency managers would respond, according to an email from R.D. Alles, deputy undersecretary for management.
Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce 鈥� either by being fired or through a 鈥渄eferred resignation鈥� offer 鈥� during the first month of . There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside of Washington.
Musk on Sunday called his latest request 鈥渁 very basic pulse check.鈥�
鈥淭he reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!鈥� Musk wrote on X. 鈥淚n some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.鈥�
He has provided no evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have in recent days that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.
Meanwhile, thousands of other employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce this coming week, including and all but a fraction of through cuts or leave.
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Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Byron Tau, Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Perrone and Tara Copp in Washington and Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.
Steve Peoples, Eric Tucker And Amanda Seitz, The Associated Press
