Elon Musk‘s aggressive push to overhaul the federal workforce has triggered a split among Trump administration officials, with some agency heads directly contradicting the billionaire’s directives.
All 2.3 million civilian federal employees on Feb. 15 received an unexpected email from the Office of Personnel Management demanding they submit five bullet points about “what you accomplished last week” by midnight Monday. The email made no mention of consequences for non-compliance, but Musk said on X that anyone failing to respond would be considered resigned.
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The contradictory guidance threw agencies into disarray. According to media reports, the FBI, Department of Defense, and State Department, instructed employees to ignore the request entirely. Staff at other agencies received mixed messages about whether to comply.
Meanwhile, Treasury employees got explicit instructions to submit their responses.
Musk lacks any legal authority to fire federal workers, and the email’s deadline demands reveal the growing tension between his theatrical approach to government reform and actual administrative reality.
The White House's Department of Government Efficiency, which is effectively being led by Musk, has made bold claims about cost-cutting that don’t hold up to scrutiny. The group recently posted what it called $55 billion in canceled contracts, but the actual documentation showed only a fraction of that amount. One contract listed as worth $8 billion was actually $8 million, The New York Times reported last week.
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Even among legitimately canceled contracts, many were terminated ‘for convenience,’ a clause that still requires the government to pay for work already performed plus additional costs, procurement law expert Jessica Tillipman of George Washington University told The Economist.
The group’s impact on federal employment has been minimal so far. Only 75,000 employees—roughly 3% of the workforce—have accepted a voluntary resignation offer. By comparison, nearly 33% of Twitter staff took a similar deal when Musk implemented it there, The Economist said.
More disruptive, according to The Economist report, has been DOGE’s handling of probationary workers. At the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees America’s nuclear arsenal, officials had to scramble to rehire 300 employees they had apparently fired by mistake the previous day.
Political resistance is growing, even in traditionally conservative areas. Republican representatives from districts that President Donald Trump won in November's election have faced angry constituents questioning why an unelected figure is determining government priorities, according to media reports.
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