New York (AP) most important American agencies, including the FBI, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Pentagon, have instructed their employees not to comply with the requirement of cost-saving chief Elon Musk that federal employees explain what they achieved last week-of-or The risk of losing their jobs or running the risk of losing their jobs.
That resistance has intensified a penetrating sense of chaos and confusion, while it emphasizes a potential power struggle among the allies of President Donald Trump, who influences federal employees throughout the country when a new working week is about to start.
The Musk team sent an e -mail to hundreds of thousands of federal employees on Saturday and received them about 48 hours to report five specific things they had reached last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said that every employee who did not respond to the deadline – set up in the E -Mail if 11:59 PM EST Monday – would lose their job.
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Democrats and even some Republicans were critical of the unusual guideline of Musk, who only encouraged him on social media a few hours after Trump encouraged him to “become more aggressive” in reducing the size of the government by his so -called Ministry of Government Efficiency or Doge. The day before, Musk celebrated his new position by waving a gigantic chainsaw during an appearance at a conservative conference.
Senator John Curtin, R-Utah, belonged to the members of Trump's own party who worried. Utah has 33,000 federal employees.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's like, please put a dose of compassion here,” Curtis said. “These are real people. These are real life. These are mortgages. … it's a false story to say that we have to cut and that you have to be cruel to do it too. “
Rep. Mike Lawler, RN.Y., also doubted the legal basis that the Trump government would have for rejecting tens of thousands of employees for refusing the last requirement of Musk, although the e -mail did not include the threat that employees have their job to lose.
Trade unions have threatened lawsuits, while various leaders of the agency, including the arrest of Trump, encourage their employees not to cooperate.
Newly confirmed FBI director Kash Patel, a pronounced Trump bondmen, dedicated office makers to ignore Musk's request, at least for the time being.
“The FBI, via the director's office, is in charge of all our assessment processes and will perform reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in an E -mail confirmed by the Associated Press. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the answers. Pause any reactions for now. “
Ed Martin, the interim -American lawyer of the District of Columbia, nominated by the Republican President, sent his staff a message on Sunday that can cause more confusion. Martin noted that he himself responded to the request for last week's performance.
“Let me clarify: we will meet this additional request, whether we will answer or decide not to answer,” wrote Martin in the e -mail obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management
“Please do a good confidence to answer and list your activities (or not, as you want), and I will, as I said, have your confusion,” Martin continued. “We can do this.”
The night before, Martin had assigned the staff to comply with the order from Musk. “Doge and Elon do a great job. Historical. We are happy to participate, “Martin wrote at the time.
Officials in the departments of state and defense, both led by recently confirmed Trump nominees, were director.
Tibor Nagy, trading sub -employee for management, told employees in an e -mail that would respond department leadership on behalf of employees.
“No employee is obliged to report their activities outside their departmental chain,” wrote Nagy, according to an e -mail obtained by the AP.
Pentagon Leadership instructed employees to 'pause' every response to the Musk team.
“The Ministry of Defense is responsible for revising the performance of its staff and it will perform any assessment in accordance with its own procedures,” said Anads an e -mail from Jules Hurst, the deputy Unders Secretary of Defense for staff and readyness. “When and if necessary, the Department will coordinate answers …”
Trump does not seem to be put off.
The president placed a meme on his social media network that mocked federal employees. The Sunday Post contained a cartoon figure that wrote a list of performance last week, led by 'cried for Trump', 'cried for Elon', 'made it once in the office' and 'read some e -mails'.
Thousands of government employees have already been forced from the federal workforce – either by being fired or by a “postponed dismissal” offer – during the first month of Trump's second term as the White House and Doge Huis and Doge new and career workers and Agency tell leaders to plan for “large -scale reductions in force.”
So far, there is no official figure available for the total dismissal or dismissals, but the AP has added hundreds of thousands of employees to be affected. Many work outside of Washington, and the cutbacks include thousands in the departments of veteran cases, defense, health and human services, as well as the IRS and the National Park Service, among other things.
Musk on Sunday called his last request 'a very basic pulse control'.
“The reason that this matters is that a considerable number of people who are supposed to work for the government do so little work that they do not check their e -mail at all!” Musk wrote on X. “In some cases we believe that non-existent people or the identity of dead people are used to collect salary. In other words, there is outright fraud. “
He has not provided any evidence for such fraud. Separately, in recent days, Musk and Trump have wrongly claimed that tens of millions of dead people are older than 100 years old.
In the meantime, thousands of other employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce this next week, including probation -civil employees at the Pentagon and contractors of the US Agency for International Development that did not receive name letters of termination during the weekend.
The USAID relocation escalates an attack of the one -month administration on the international humanitarian agency that has frozen its financing, closed its head office in Washington and has concluded thousands of American aid and development programs worldwide.
A judge who temporarily blocked the freezing of foreign aid, said that the administration had continued to remember the help and at least temporarily recover the financing to programs worldwide. But another judge paved the way for the administration to continue with the pulling of thousands of USAID employees of the work.
The general nature of the notification letters to USAID contractors, with the exception of the names or positions of those who receive it, can make it difficult for the dismissed employees to receive unemployment benefits, employees remarked.
Democrats accused the Republican president of sowing chaos to distract Americans from his failure to tackle their economic care and to lower inflation.
“You have Elon Musk a chainsaw for the federal government and important services, and there is no Article 4 in the Constitution that Elon Musk gives that authority,” said Senator Chris van Hollen, D-MD.
He said that the actions of Musk are illegal and “we must close this illegal operation.”
Curtis and Van Hollen were on CBS 'Face the Nation' and Lawler appeared on ABC's 'this week'.
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Associated Press writers byron Tau, Ellen Knickmeyer, Eric Tucker and Tara Copp in Washington contributed to this report.
