Elon Musk told federal workers Monday evening that they had “another chance” to justify their work or lose their jobs. The original deadline for them to comply passed later on Monday. Employees at multiple federal agencies had been told to disregard his initial directive.
Musk, the world’s richest person, a close adviser to President Trump and his biggest campaign donor, had originally given federal government employees until the end of Monday to send an email explaining their work achievements.
His new directive represents the latest challenge from Musk to government workers as the White House’s newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he heads, works toward reducing federal staffing and spending.
“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,” Musk said Monday evening on X, which he owns. “Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” he added, without providing a new deadline.
There was no word on how many federal workers complied with the original one.
The first deadline came and went with much confusion among an already anxious workforce after several federal agencies — including some led by prominent Trump loyalists — told staff to ignore the email, at least temporarily.
Among them were the Justice Department, the FBI, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Others, including the Transportation Department, the Education Department and the Department of Commerce and the National Transportation Safety Board, told their workers they should comply.
The office that had instructed federal workers to document five things they accomplished over the past week told executive branch officials Monday that individual agencies could decide how to respond, despite Musk’s threat.
Two officials told CBS News that the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM — in essence the government’s human resources agency — held a call with personnel officials at federal agencies and said it’s up to each one to determine how they want to handle the directive employees received Saturday.
DOGE has faced increasing resistance on multiple fronts to its cost-cutting campaign, including court rulings and some pressure from lawmakers.
More than two million federal employees received the email from OPM setting the Monday night deadline for them to submit “approximately 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”
The message followed a Musk post on X that “all federal workers” would receive the email and that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
As confusion over what to make of the threat spread, Mr. Trump defended Musk’s Saturday message, calling it “ingenious” as it would expose whether “people are working.”
“If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
Non-responders would be “sort of semi-fired” or fired, the president added without explaining his thinking further.
Musk on Monday said Saturday’s email “was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.”
“This mess will get sorted out this week. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will,” he added on X.
Unions quickly opposed Musk’s request, with the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), vowing to challenge any unlawful terminations.
Concern has begun to emerge on Capitol Hill from Mr. Trump’s own Republican party, which controls both the House and the Senate.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, ‘Please put a dose of compassion in this,'” said Sen. John Curtis of Utah, whose state has 33,000 federal employees.
“These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages,” Curtis said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Dozens of lawsuits against Musk’s threats or demands have yielded mixed results, with some requests for immediate halts to his executive orders being denied by judges.
