Elon Musk‘s self-appointed role as Washington’s most unconventional boss took an unexpected twist this weekend after his “justify-your-job” ultimatum to federal employees met a rare challenge — from inside the Trump administration.
Musk, who recently assumed the unofficial position of” Department of Government Efficiency” ( DOGE ) czar, sent an email to all federal employees requesting a summary of their week-long duties.
Leaders Trophy 2025
The get? Failing to reply would be considered a withdrawal.
But the FBI wasn’t having it.
FBI pulls up
Kash Patel, the newly created FBI Director, ordered ministry staff to ignore Musk’s contact until further notice. Patel wrote:” In an interior letter that was first reported by NBC:
OPM may have sent an email to FBI officers asking for information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our assessment methods, and may do testimonials in accordance with FBI techniques. For now, choose delay any responses”.
Transcription? The FBI doesn’t taking orders from Musk.
Trump applause, Musk doubles down
Despite the backlash, Trump cheered Musk on, calling the Tesla CEO a “patriot” and urging him to be even “more aggressive”.
Musk quickly took to X ( formerly Twitter ), praising employees who responded to his email and suggesting they should be in the running for promotions.
” Many positive actions have already been received. These individuals may be taken into consideration for promotion, Musk wrote in a post that included a meme featuring him while wearing an Uncle Sam hat.
The message that sparked everything
Federal people were instructed to list five bullet points of their contributions and cite their managers in the now-infamous email that appeared in mails under the participant line” What did you do final month”?
Musk’s X post laid it out plainly:” Regular with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all national employees will quickly receive an email requesting to comprehend what they got done next week. Failure to respond may be taken as a withdrawal”.
But, according to CNN, the message itself did not explicitly harm termination, merely setting a timeframe of Monday at 11: 59 am ET for messages.
Authorities in conflict
The immediate order left federal authorities scrambling. Employees were advised by the Department of Veterans Affairs, national security organizations, and a number of other departments to dismiss Musk’s demand until given official instructions.
A Department of Veterans Affairs physician told AFP,” I have so much work to do that I am not going to abuse real individual treatment for this drama.”
Musk, however, appeared to dismiss the reaction, posting that the club for responses was “very small” — effectively, anything that “makes any sense at all” may be deemed appropriate.
What’s next?
Musk’s effort to streamline the US government may have just opened a bureaucratic battlefield as Patel exercises his authority and federal employees rebel against him.
