Elon Musk is finding himself locked in a power struggle with top Trump administration officials over an out-of-the-blue email blast to federal workers Saturday demanding that they list their professional accomplishments last week — or risk being fired.
Multiple Trump-appointed agency and department heads — including the Department of Defense, State Department and FBI — have instructed their employees to ignore the email despite the billionaire’s public warning that “failure to respond” by 11:59 p.m. Monday “will be taken as a resignation.”
In an email Saturday, Trump loyalist and newly-minted FBI Director Kash Patel instructed his staff to “pause any response.”
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel said.
“The 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. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any response.”
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already pushed for sweeping personnel cuts across the government, with the latest move raising concerns that the Tesla CEO intends to make more personnel decisions based on replies to the missive.
“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut,” moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) griped on X.
“Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”
Musk’s brash way of running DOGE is leading to a turf war in Washington over who gets to call the shots on personnel decisions — Senate-confirmed agency and department heads or the DOGE honcho, who has not undergone Senate scrutiny but appears to have immense power thanks to President Trump’s backing.
“The unelected and unaccountable billionaire then proceeded to threaten these civil servants on social media as different agencies and divisions of the federal government provided conflicting guidance to workers on this legally dubious move,” Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) seethed on X.
House Democrats also penned a letter to 24 agency and department heads Monday asking that they clarify to their workers that the Musk-directed email is “invalid.”
“To this day, despite repeated inquiries from Congress, we do not know Mr. Musk’s official status in government, we do not know what his financial conflicts of interest may be, and we do not know what — if any — control President Trump actually has over his actions,” they wrote.
