Elon Musk
“What did you do last week? Do not answer, please. ” Reached a new level of chaos and confusion within the US Federal Administration.
Some US agencies, including the FBI, the State Department and the Pentagon, instructed their employees to ignore Elon Musk’s to explain what they did last week under penalty of dismissal.
In an email sent on Saturday, marked with the subject “What did you do last week?”Elon Musk, appointed by Donald Trump to lead Doge, a commission with the task of cutting off public spending in the United States, told employees to summarize the work done in recent days, with expected response until Monday at midnight.
With the indication of a Trump requirement, Musk warned that the absence of response would result in dismissal, as reported local means.
Government officials struggled over the weekend to interpret the unusual order, although some argue that It is illegal and unions threaten to process musk.
Democrats and even some Republicans criticized the ultimatum, done a few hours after Trump encouraged musk, on social networks, “Being more aggressive” in reducing the size of government services.
A few hours later, Musk made the ultimatum to all civil servants, “consistent with President Trump’s instructions.”
The rejection by parts of some leaders of federal agencies, appointed by Donald Trump himself, marks a new level of chaos and confusion within the federal administration.
FBI’s newly confirmed director Kash Patel, a declared ally from Trump, instructed agency employees to Ignore Musk’s requestat least for now.
“The FBI, through the director’s office, is responsible for all our review processes and will conduct revisions according to FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in a ’email’ confirmed by the Associated Press agency. “When and if more information is necessary, we will coordinate the answers. For now, Please do not give answers“, he wrote.
In some agencies there were contradictory guidelines, such as the Health Department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who instructed his 80,000 employees to fulfill, after, shortly before, the general advisor, Sean Keveney, said to some workers not to do so.
Ed Martin, the interim US attorney for Columbia district, where the capital is located, sent to his team a message today that can cause more confusion, asking: “Please make a good faith effort to answer and list Your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I will assume responsibilities for any confusion. ”
State and defense departments employees were more consistent. Tibor Nagy, Under-Secretary of Acting State, told employees in a ’email’ that the department leadership would respond on behalf of workers. “No employee is required to report their activities out of place”he said.
Trump administration began last week to dismiss thousands of federal civil servants in an experimental period and had already launched a plan to encourage employees to fire in exchange for a continuous payment by the end of September. More than 75,000 federal civil servants accepted the dismissal offeraccording to The Washington Post.
