Senior White House officials are rebutting Elon Musk’s recent order which instructed federal government employees to justify their positions by reporting “what they got done last week.”
The email informed federal workers to respond to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by 11:59 p.m. EST Monday. However, a growing list of agencies, including the Pentagon, FBI, State Department and intelligence community, on Sunday had told their employees to hold off. (RELATED: Elon Musk Requires Federal Employees To Explain What They Do Every Week)
The Department of Defense shared a message to its employees on X, noting it is responsible for reviewing employee performance.
“When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week,’” Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Darin Selnick said in a statement.
FBI Director Kash Patel also told employees to hold off on responding to the email.
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel wrote in his message. “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.”
“When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses,” Patel continued. “For now, please pause any responses.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sent similar guidance to employees of agencies she oversees in the intelligence community (I.C.).
“the FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all our review processes.” Gabbard cited “the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work” as the reason her staff “should not respond to the OPM email,” according to the Times.
The State Department’s acting undersecretary of state for management, Tibor P. Nagy, reportedly told the Post that “no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.”
A screenshot posted online shows an email the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) sent to its members saying employees were “strongly” advised to not respond to OPM’s request.
“We are concerned about the implications of this request and are actively working to protect your rights and interests,” the NTEU said in a statement.
In a letter addressed to OPM acting director Charles Ezell, along with Musk, Everett Kelley, the national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), directed its 800,000 members to not respond to the received request.
On Sunday, Musk responded to a report of a Pentagon official calling the email the “silliest thing in 40 years.”
“Anyone with the attitude of that Pentagon official needs to look for a new job,” Musk wrote.
Musk also shared a response to the OPM email that was generated by his artificial intelligence tool, Grok. The AI chatbot devised five simple sentences a federal government employee could use to reply to OPM’s request.
The Bama appointees will soon discover the employees are not very accountable and this was how anti republic operatives on the inside of 3 letter agencies were able to operate undetected
In the hand of leftists self assessment internal audits allow those at the top to report whatever they make up.
This is the VERY shameful disloyalty that has plagued President Trump since he was first elected in 2016. Powerful individuals serving at his pleasure take opposition to his directives. Elon Musk has President Trump’s approval and therefore has the authority to make decisions and requirements of ANY department of government, including personnel therein. To openly defy Musk speaks volumes about the territorial mindset that has crippled D.C. for decades. President Trump cannot survive another four years of such open defiance.