Elon Musk‘s self-appointed role as Washington’s most unconventional boss took an unexpected twist this weekend after his “justify-your-job” ultimatum to federal employees met a rare challenge — from inside the Trump administration.
Musk, who recently stepped into the unofficial position of “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) czar, sent an email to all federal employees demanding a summary of their weekly work.The catch? Failure to reply would be considered a resignation.
But the FBI wasn’t having it.
FBI pushes back
Kash Patel, the newly minted FBI Director, ordered bureau employees to ignore Musk’s email until further notice. In an internal memo first reported by NBC, Patel wrote:
“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. 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. For now, please pause any responses.”
Translation? The FBI doesn’t take orders from Musk.
Trump cheers, Musk doubles down
Despite the pushback, Trump cheered Musk on, calling the Tesla CEO a “patriot” and urging him to be even “more aggressive.”
Not one to let controversy fizzle out, Musk quickly took to X (formerly Twitter), praising employees who responded to his email and suggesting they should be first in line for promotions.
“A large number of good responses have been received already. These are the people who should be considered for promotion,” Musk posted, attaching a meme of himself wearing an Uncle Sam hat.
The email that started it all
The now-infamous email, which landed in inboxes under the subject line “What did you do last week?”, instructed federal employees to list five bullet points of their accomplishments and CC their managers.
Musk’s X post laid it out bluntly: “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
But, according to CNN, the email itself did not explicitly threaten termination, only setting a deadline of Monday at 11:59 pm ET for responses.
Government in chaos mode
The sudden order left federal agencies scrambling. The Department of Veterans Affairs, national security agencies, and multiple other departments advised employees to ignore Musk’s demand until they received official guidance.
“I have so much work to do, I am not going to neglect actual patient care for this drama,” a Department of Veterans Affairs doctor told AFP.
Musk, however, appeared to downplay the backlash, posting that the bar for responses was “very low” — essentially, anything that “makes any sense at all” would be deemed acceptable.
What’s next?
With Patel flexing his authority and federal employees pushing back, Musk’s attempt to streamline the US government may have just opened a bureaucratic battlefield.
