Trump administration allows federal agencies to disregard Musk's email order

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees federal human resource functions, informed chief human capital officers of the decision during a call on Monday, The Washington Post reported, citing one of three people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

Musk, a business magnate and head of the Department of Government Efficiency, has significant power to reduce the 2.3 million federal workforce.

Earlier on Saturday, he stated in a post on X: "Consistent with President Donald Trump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be treated as a resignation."

Federal employees would receive an email asking for a list of their work activities from the previous week, and if they did not respond by Monday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, they would be considered to have resigned, it added.

The email was sent to millions of people, including federal judges and legislative branch employees, causing confusion among agency leaders who struggled to apply the guidance to their specific roles, the newspaper said.

Several agencies, including the Justice Department, FBI, State Department, Pentagon, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, instructed their employees to disregard the request, The Washington Post reported.

Some departments had yet to reject Musk's mandate, leaving the door open to firing federal employees who did not comply.

Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday, President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about a schism between his administration and Musk's X feed. He explained that the only exceptions to Musk's email came from agency leaders, including those at the FBI and State Department, who were attempting to protect sensitive information.

“They don’t mean that in any way combatively, with Elon. They’re just saying there’s some people that you don’t want to really have them tell you what they’re working on last week, other than that, everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea,” Trump said.