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President Trump said workers would be “sort of semi-fired” or fired if they didn’t comply. The Office of Personnel Management said responses were voluntary. Federal workers said they didn’t know what to do.
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent. He reported from Washington.
- Feb. 24, 2025, 2:19 p.m. ET
Are federal employees at risk of being fired at midnight Monday if they don’t respond to an Elon Musk email?
President Trump said on Monday that Mr. Musk’s email demanding that federal workers justify their jobs was “ingenious” and “great” and repeated Mr. Musk’s written warning: “If you don’t answer, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired.”
But even as televisions played Mr. Trump’s comments, his personnel department informed agencies that responding to the Musk email was now “voluntary” and that failing to respond would not be considered a resignation, as Mr. Musk had indicated.
The nearly simultaneous messages added to days of confusion after Mr. Musk’s weekend email fractured Mr. Trump’s cabinet, with the leaders of some departments ordering their employees to comply and others directing workers to ignore the threat.
The dissent among the top ranks of Mr. Trump’s administration was rare for a president whose demands for absolute loyalty have resulted in dramatic executive actions by his subordinates, all acting in lock step to quickly push through Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Numerous top officials defied Mr. Musk, urging their employees to “pause” or “not respond” to the demand for a description of five things they did the previous week. Employees at the Departments of State, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security and Justice were all flatly told not to comply.
