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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump backed Elon Musk’s demand that federal employees explain their recent accomplishments by the end of Monday or risk getting fired, even as government agency officials were told that compliance with Musk’s edict was voluntary.
Confusion and anger over the situation spawned new litigation and added to turmoil within the federal workforce.
“What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’” Trump said in the Oval Office during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. “And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.”
The Republican president said Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has found “hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud” as he suggested that federal paychecks are going to nonexistent employees. He did not present evidence for his claims.
Even as Trump and Musk pressed their case, the Office of Personnel Management informed agency leaders that their workers were not required to respond by the deadline of 11:59 p.m. EST Monday, according to a person with knowledge of the conversation who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters.
The conflicting directives led to varying advice for federal employees, depending on where they work. Some were told to answer the request for a list of five things that they did last week, others were informed it was optional, and others were directed not to answer at all.
Musk bristled at resistance, saying federal workers “hate even the tiniest amount of accountability.” He continued to threaten firings hours after employees were told that they didn’t need to comply with his demands.
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” he posted on X, his social media platform. “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”
Attorneys representing unions, businesses, veterans and conservation organizations filed an updated lawsuit in federal court in California on Monday, arguing Musk had violated the law by threatening mass firings.
The lawsuit, spearheaded by the State Democracy Defenders Fund, called it “one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country.”
Anna Kelly, a White House deputy press secretary, criticized the litigation by saying “in the time it took these employees on taxpayer-funded salaries to file a frivolous lawsuit, they could have briefly recapped their accomplishments to their managers, as is common in the private sector, 100 times over.”
Musk is leading Trump’s efforts to overhaul and downsize the federal government. They’ve urged employees to resign, directed agencies to lay off probationary workers and halted work at some agencies altogether.
There has been pushback in protests around Washington and from within the government. The Office of Special Counsel, a watchdog for the federal workforce, said Monday that the firing of several probationary workers may be illegal. Trump is trying to fire the office’s leader, Hampton Dellinger, in a case that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dellinger asked the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board to stop layoffs of six employees, but suggested that many more workers should also be protected from losing their jobs.
There are also signs Musk is testing the limits of his influence. Some administration officials — including some of Trump’s most strident allies, such as FBI Director Kash Patel — have told employees not to respond to the email requesting five things they did, citing privacy or security concerns and noting that agencies have their own processes for evaluating employees.
“When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses,” Patel wrote in an email.
It has been the most significant public divergence between the billionaire entrepreneur and Senate-approved Cabinet leaders who have otherwise been enthusiastic about fulfilling Musk’s objectives.
Trump dismissed the idea there was any kind of split involving his most powerful adviser.
“They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon,” he said, adding that “everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea.”
The latest turbulence began over the weekend, when Trump posted on his social media website, “ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE.”
Musk followed by saying “all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” and he claimed “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” The directive echoed how he has managed his own companies.
The Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, sent out its own request afterward.
“Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager,” the message said. However, it said nothing about the potential for employees being fired for noncompliance.
There was swift resistance from several key U.S. agencies led by the president’s loyalists — including the State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon — which instructed their employees over the weekend not to respond. Lawmakers in both major political parties said Musk’s mandate may be illegal.
Justice Department employees were told in an email Monday morning that they don’t need to respond to the request “due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the Department’s work.”
But employees in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington were instructed to respond “in general terms,” leaving out case-specific or otherwise sensitive information. In an email viewed by The Associated Press, attorneys were provided with guidance about how to respond about the number of court hearings they attended, defendants they charged, cases they resolved or other tasks.
The Department of Health and Human Services told staff that “there is no HHS expectation that HHS employees respond.” If anyone wanted to write back, they were directed to be vague.
“Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly,” said an email to employees.
Education Department workers were directed to comply on Monday morning. “The email is legitimate and employees should respond,” wrote Rachel Oglesby, chief of staff at the department. She added that “frontline supervisors will evaluate responses and non-responses.”
Charles Ezell, the acting director of OPM, suggested that Musk’s request may lead to new expectations for employees. Officials “may consider incorporating an expectation that employees submit weekly accomplishments bullets,” he wrote in an email to staff.
Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce — either by being fired or through a “deferred resignation″ offer — during the first month of Trump’s second term. There’s no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs, but the AP has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside Washington.
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Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in New York, Eric Tucker, Amanda Seitz, Byron Tau, Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Perrone, Alanna Durkin Richer and Tara Copp in Washington and Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.
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