The refusal by appointed individuals under President Donald Trump marks a new level of chaos and confusion within the beleaguered federal workforce, just a month after Trump returned to the White House and swiftly began working to fulfill his campaign promise of reducing the size of the government.
Over the weekend, some government officials rushed to interpret Musk's unusual order, which apparently has Trump's backing despite some lawmakers arguing it is illegal. Unions are calling for the government to revoke the request and threaten legal action.
Some officials are refusing, while others are encouraging their workers to comply. In some agencies, there were conflicting instructions. The Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., ordered compliance among its nearly 80,000 employees on Sunday morning.
This came shortly after the agency's legal affairs head, Sean Keveney, had instructed some not to comply. By Sunday night, the agency's leadership issued new instructions for employees to "suspend activities" related to the request until noon on Monday. "I'll be honest with you.
After working over 70 hours last week to promote government priorities, receiving the following email is somewhat insulting," Keveney stated in an email accessed by The Associated Press. Keveney raised security concerns and noted that some of the work done by agency employees could be protected by attorney-client privilege: "I have not received assurances that there are adequate protections to safeguard responses to this email."
Musk's team sent an email on Saturday to thousands of federal bureaucrats giving them approximately 48 hours to report five specific accomplishments from the week. In a separate message on the X social network, Musk said that any employee who did not respond by the deadline — set in the email as 11:59 p.m.
Eastern time on Monday — would lose their job. Democrats and even some Republicans criticized Musk's ultimatum, which came shortly after Trump encouraged him on social media to "be more aggressive" in reducing the size of the government through his newly created Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE). Republican Senator John Curtin from Utah was one of Trump's party members who expressed concern. "If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's like, please, put a dose of compassion into this," said Curtis, whose state has 33,000 federal employees. "They are real people. They are real lives. It's about mortgages... It's a false narrative to say that we have to cut and be cruel to do it as well."
Republican lawmaker Mike Lawler from New York also questioned the legal basis for the federal government to dismiss tens of thousands of workers for refusing to comply with Musk's latest demand.
The email did not include a threat that employees could lose their jobs. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen had no doubt: "The actions he is taking are illegal," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation" program.
Trump mocked the affected workers by posting a meme on his social network on Sunday. The post featured an image of a cartoon character listing their achievements of the week, such as: "Complained about Trump," "Complained about Elon," "Came to the office, for a change," and "Read some emails." The newly confirmed FBI Director, Kash Patel, an outspoken ally of Trump, instructed office employees to ignore Musk's request, at least for now.
"The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures," wrote Patel in an email confirmed by The Associated Press. "When and if more information is required, we will coordinate responses. For now, please stop any response."
Ed Martin, the acting federal prosecutor for the District of Columbia, sent a message to his staff on Sunday that may cause more confusion. Martin noted that he himself responded to the request for last week's achievements. "Let me clarify: we will comply with this OPM request, whether by responding or deciding not to respond," Martin wrote in the email obtained by AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). "Please make a good faith effort to respond and list your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I, as mentioned, will support you in case of any confusion," Martin continued. "We can do this."
The night before, Martin had instructed staff to comply. "DOGE and Elon are doing a great job. Historic. We are happy to participate," he wrote at that time. Officials from the State, Defense, and Homeland Security Departments were more direct.
Tibor Nagy, the acting Under Secretary of State for Management, sent an email to employees stating that the State Department's leadership would respond on behalf of the workers. "No employee is required to report on their activities outside their department's chain of command," Nagy wrote.
Pentagon leadership also instructed employees to "suspend" any response to Musk's team. "The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing its personnel performance and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures," according to an email from Jules Hurst, Under Secretary of Personnel and Readiness. "When and if necessary, the Department will coordinate responses."
The Department of Homeland Security informed its employees that "no report is currently needed from your part" and that agency managers would respond, according to an email from R.D. Alles, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Management.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which has 800,000 members, sent a stern message to the government on Sunday, stating that it must revoke Musk's request and apologize to all federal workers by the end of the day. "We believe that employees are not obligated to respond to this clearly illegal email in the absence of other legal direction," he wrote in an email, referring to Musk as "unelected and unhinged."
Thousands of bureaucrats have already been removed from the federal workforce, either through dismissal or through a "deferred resignation" offer.
There is no official figure available on the total number of dismissals so far, but AP has counted hundreds of thousands of affected workers. On Sunday, Musk described his latest request as "a very basic pulse check." "The reason this is important is that a significant number of people who are supposed to work for the government are doing so little work that they don't even check their email!" Musk wrote on X. "In some cases, we believe that nonexistent people or the identities of deceased individuals are being used to collect salaries. In other words, there is blatant fraud."
Musk has not provided any evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have claimed without evidence in recent days that millions of deceased people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.
At the same time, thousands of employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce next week, including civilian workers on probation at the Pentagon and contractors for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).