Elon Musk’s weekend menace to federal employees triggered panic and confusion Sunday as administration officers rushed to difficulty typically conflicting steerage, setting in movement an influence wrestle between Musk and company heads appointed by President Donald Trump to guide the federal authorities.
The steerage different by company, with some leaders telling their staff to attend earlier than complying with Musk’s demand that they justify their jobs in writing and others both staying silent or providing obscure recommendation on the right way to deal with the Musk missive.
It’s the most recent episode of Musk’s “transfer quick and break issues” philosophy clashing with the layers of guidelines and legal guidelines that fortify the forms he hopes to hobble. And it’s the primary signal that even staunch Trump loyalists are starting to flex their political muscle in opposition to Musk, an unelected “particular authorities worker,” whose energy stems primarily from his proximity to the president.
“Elon Musk has no authority. He isn’t within the chain of command of those staff, so getting a direct order to do one thing or lose your job in some capability when he had no authority to try this is one thing these company heads are mainly wising as much as,” stated Mark Maxin, an legal professional with almost 4 many years of expertise in federal employment legislation, who served as counsel for labor relations on the Division of Labor below Democratic and Republican administrations.
Musk said Saturday on X that every one federal staff would obtain an e-mail asking them what they did the week earlier than, and failure to reply could be “taken as a resignation.” Hours later, staff throughout the federal government received an e-mail directing them to supply about 5 bullet factors detailing what they completed up to now week, with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. Japanese on Monday.
Cue the confusion. As hundreds of thousands of federal employees puzzled when and the right way to reply — and if their jobs, already below assault, hung within the steadiness — management at some businesses urged staff to not instantly comply.
“No worker is obligated to report their actions exterior of their Division chain of command,” learn an e-mail despatched to State Division staff, obtained by POLITICO. Leaders at businesses from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being to the Justice Division instructed employees to not reply till they obtain additional steerage, in accordance with individuals accustomed to the matter.
Even Kash Patel, the FBI director and fierce Trump loyalist, instructed company workers to “please pause any responses,” in an e-mail obtained by POLITICO. Related language seems in steerage despatched Sunday afternoon to Pentagon staff and obtained by POLITICO.
A DOGE spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The e-mail, despatched with the topic line “What did you do final week?” from an Workplace of Personnel Administration human sources handle, instructed staff to not share labeled info. However Maxin, the labor lawyer, cautioned that respondents might nonetheless break the legislation in the event that they shared info that was not labeled, however privateness protected, reminiscent of private figuring out details about different staff.
Maxin added that Musk’s e-mail violates federal sector employment legislation in a number of methods, together with that staff are shielded from being coerced to present out info. A menace of dismissal would probably match the definition of coercion.
Authorized specialists proceed to say Musk lacks the authority to fireside anybody within the federal authorities, the place employees are entitled to civil service protections, in contrast to at his non-public sector corporations, the place the world’s richest individual has culled his own workforce.
“I don’t consider it will be authorized, and I don’t suppose he actually understands proper now how he’ll even do what he’s threatened to do,” stated Michael Fallings, an legal professional specializing in federal employment legislation.
Talking Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) stated, “I do not suppose this can be a request that’s that troublesome,” but in addition used the state of affairs to induce Musk to shift his tone.
“We do not have to be so chilly and exhausting,” Curtis stated, “and let’s put just a little compassion and, fairly frankly, dignity, on this as nicely.”
Musk’s social media publish asserting the e-mail got here hours after Trump publicly pushed for the DOGE chief to “get extra aggressive.”
And the transfer seems to have happy the president. On Sunday, Trump and Musk each posted a SpongeBob meme on social media joking that bureaucrats’ bullet factors would come with “cried about Trump, cried about Elon, made it into the workplace as soon as, learn some emails [and] cried about Trump and Elon some extra.”
Democrats and labor advocates slammed the directive as merciless and unlawful. The American Federation of Authorities Workers, the union that represents employees throughout the federal authorities, on Sunday sent a letter to OPM calling the e-mail “nothing greater than an irresponsible and sophomoric try to create confusion and bully the hard-working federal staff that serve our nation” and requesting that the company “rescind the e-mail and apologize to all federal staff.”
“Elon Musk is traumatizing hardworking federal staff, their kids and households,” Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries stated in a press release. “He has no authorized authority to make his newest calls for.”
And authorities employees, granted anonymity to talk candidly, informed POLITICO the e-mail — and the concept their employment could possibly be judged based mostly on a handful of bullet factors — was offensive. “This knowledge name is such an oversimplification of our work; it’s insulting,” stated one FDA official.
“If I reply this little pop quiz truthfully, most of my listed actions could be cleansing up the mess attributable to DOGE and the administration,” stated a profession staffer on the Vitality Division.
Anita Kumar, Daniel Payne, Hannah Northey, Paul McLeary, Josh Gerstein and Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: An earlier model of this report misstated the community to which Sen. John Curtis gave an interview on Sunday. He appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
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