Elon Musk is doubling down on his demand that federal workers show their worth as he faces pushback from President Donald Trump’s Cabinet and other top officials—and a newly amended lawsuit.
Musk threatened U.S. government employees on Monday with termination if they don’t respond to his “five bullets” email sent over the weekend—even after they were advised by their bosses to ignore the DOGE chief.
“Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere,” the billionaire-turned-federal waste trimmer and enforcer said Monday in a post on X, the social media platform he owns.
His demands grew more shrill as a rift was exposed between him and Trump’s Cabinet and other top officials who have advised their employees not to respond to the Musk-ordered email sent from the Office of Personnel Management asking workers to list five accomplishments from last week or risk losing their jobs.
Meanwhile, a newly amended lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court is challenging Musk’s “what did you do last week” threat to federal workers. The suit, filed by unions that represent federal workers, asks a judge to prohibit OPM from terminating “tens of thousands of federal employees in contravention of federal constitutional and statutory law.”
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the State Department, Commerce, the FBI and the Department of Energy were among those who advised staff not to reply until further notice.
“No employee is obligated to report their activities outside their Department chain of command,” Tibor Nagy, the acting under secretary at the State Department, wrote in an email to staff over the weekend.
Musk, who has fired thousands of federal employees in his capacity as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, leaned into the tension.
“EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH!!” he wrote Sunday on X, the platform he owns. “What is wrong with them??”
The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment on the standoff between Musk and Trump’s Cabinet and other senior government officials over whether employees are obligated to answer Musk’s demand. But Trump appeared to side with Musk on Sunday.
Musk posted earlier Monday that the email confusion—or the “mess,” as he put it—”will get sorted out this week” and warned a “lot of people are in for a rude awakening and a strong dose of reality.”
Musk also warned that federal employees who fail to show up in person at their offices this week will be placed on administrative leave.
Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s newly confirmed director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel, the newly installed FBI director, also reportedly instructed their staff not to respond to Musk’s directive.
“Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email,” Gabbard wrote in an email to intelligence officials.
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote to his employees. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
