Several US agencies have asked employees not to respond immediately to a requirement from President Donald Trump’s counselor Elon Musk to list their achievements last week or would be fired, while a chaotic campaign to reduce federal labor advances.
FBI and state department authorities appointed by the Trump government have sent emails to their teams asking not to respond outside their command chains-a possible sign of tension between members of the republican government and the richest person in the world in their campaign to cut the federal civil labor force of 2.3 million people.
“The FBI, through the director’s office, is responsible for all our review processes,” said FBI director Kash Patel, appointed by Trump, in an email sent to the team, seen by Reuters.
Musk leads the so -called government efficiency department, which in the early weeks of the Trump administration and offered compensation to another 75,000 in large areas of the government, from the Defense Department – there is a long time for the main republican priorities – to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where all employees received orders to interrupt the work.
The frantic rhythm led the federal government, in some cases, running to reject workers who perform critical functions, such as protecting the country’s nuclear arsenal and trying to combat the outbreak of worse -worse -worse, and has made egg prices soak.
Although there is a bipartisan agreement that the US government, which has a $ 36 trillion debt, would benefit from the reform, attracted widespread criticism, including voters in some areas dominated by Republicans.
Federal employees received an email on Saturday night by instructing them to detail their work during the previous week until 11:59 pm (East US) on Monday (4:59 pm East US) on Tuesday -), right after Musk post on his social media site X that does not respond would be considered a resignation.
The subject of the email was: and came from a human resource address of the personnel management office ,.
Workers from the Departments of Defense, Internal Security, Education and Commerce, as well as from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Institutes of Health and Internal Revenue Service were also informed not to respond, awaiting new guidelines, according to reviews and emails By Reuters. Intelligence agency workers will also be informed not to respond, according to a source.
“To make it clear,” wrote a senior executive from the National Environmental Information Centers, an agency that manages environmental data and is part of the Department of Commerce.
Some authorities welcomed the initiative. Ed Martin, nominated by Trump for US Attorney in Washington, DC, who is serving on an interim basis, praised Musk and Doge in an email response.
But other Justice Department offices, including the executive office that supports all US prosecutors and the department’s civil division, told employees not to respond until additional information was provided.
Drug Emparcement Administration officials part of the Justice Department were instructed to respond, according to an email seen by Reuters.
The largest federal workers’ union, the US government official federation, wrote on Sunday on Sunday that it does not believe that Musk has the authority to dismiss employees who do not formally and would formally request that OPM rescue the message.
Meanwhile, the union advised the members to ask directly to their supervisors if they should answer and then their guidelines.
The email has made some employees even more frustrated and concerned after weeks of uncertainty about their future.
“I really wonder when someone will say ‘enough,” an IRS employee told Reuters.
Spokesmen of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, Education and Treasury, as well as FDIC and NIH, did not immediately respond to requests for comments. An FBI spokesman refused to comment, and a state department spokesman referred questions to the White House.
Musk, on his social media platform, called the email “a very basic pulse check” and displayed a fictional list he generated using artificial intelligence.
“Extremely worrying that some parts of the government think this is too much !! What’s wrong with them? ” Musk wrote.
American Senator John Curtis, a republican of Utah, said he supports Trump government efforts to reduce government spending, but that Musk should adopt a more humane approach.
“If I could say something to Elon Musk, it would be, ‘Please put a dose of compassion on that,” Curtis said at CBS News. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It is a false narrative to say that we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do that too. We can do both. ”
Some employees of the Federal Judiciary, including judges, also received Saturday’s Email from the OPM, although the judicial system is not part of the Executive Power, the US Court Administrative Office said.
The judiciary informed employees that no action should be taken in response to the message, according to an email analyzed by Reuters.
In some cases, employees were unaware of how to answer, even if they wanted to.
Some lawyers, for example, expressed concern about the confidentiality of their work.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees also received the email, according to people with knowledge of the subject, although everyone has received orders to stop working since the beginning of this month, which left them with little to do.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Republican, said the email was “a complete exaggeration” that would be rejected in court.
“From a management point of view, you can see which clown car this is now,” Christie said at ABC News.
