Elon Musk‘s order to U.S. government workers to justify their jobs opened divisions in President Donald Trump‘s administration, as some agencies told workers to repond to the chainsaw-wielding billioniare by Monday night and others said to ignore him.
Musk’s directive to 2.3 million civil-service workers to provide a five-point summary of their work by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time (0459 GMT) has raised concerns about the world’s richest person’s authority in Trump’s government, as he leads efforts to reduce federal payroll.
The first documented internal backlash against Musk’s forceful strategy for reorganising the federal government was the countermanding of his directive by certain department executives.
More than 20,000 employees have already been laid off as a result of Musk’s downsizing initiative, and he threatened to fire anyone who disobeys his directive.
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Elon on his social media account, X , “Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere.”
However, officials from the FBI, the Department of Defense, the State Department, Homeland Security, and several other agencies instructed workers not to react outside of their designated line of command.
The countermanding of his order by some agency officials was also the first known internal pushback against Musk’s blunt-force approach to overhauling the federal government.
The Department of Health and Human Services had previously ordered its employees to comply, but now instructed them to wait while it determined how to “best meet the intent” of Musk’s unexpected command.
Employees have received instructions from the Transportation Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and independent organisations such as the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to respond to Musk’s message.
“This mess will get sorted out this week,” Musk had written. Separately, he said that employees who keep working remotely would be put on leave beginning this week.
The confusion was a reflection of the larger turmoil surrounding Trump’s comeback.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has frozen billions of dollars in foreign assistance and effectively dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, stranding medicine and food in warehouses.
