Trump defends Musk as backlash to federal workers ultimatum grows

Donald Trump has stepped in to defend Elon Musk from a mounting backlash in his own administration after some cabinet members told US federal workers to ignore the billionaire entrepreneur’s demand that they write an email justifying their work.

The US president was driven to intervene amid the first signs of internal dissension over the disruptive impact of Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which Trump has authorised to seek mass firings in the federal workforce and reduce supposed waste and corruption.

Newly confirmed cabinet officials, including the FBI director, Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard, the national intelligence director, told underlings not to comply with a weekend order from Musk for all staff to send an email detailing their past week’s work by midnight on Monday or face termination.

As other government departments added to the pushback, the office of personnel management (OPM) issued a statement advising employees to respond but removed the sacking threat, while giving agency heads the authority to excuse staff from Musk’s demand.

“Agency heads may exclude personnel from this expectation at their discretion and should inform OPM of the categories of the employees excluded and reasons for exclusion,” the OPM wrote in a statement. “It is agency leadership’s decision as to what actions are taken.”

With his wealthiest and most high-profile lieutenant threatened with loss of face and authority, Trump used a meeting with the French president, Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday to deliver a vote of confidence.

“What he’s doing is saying: ‘Are you actually working?’ Trump said. “And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired, because a lot of people aren’t answering because they don’t even exist.

“I thought it was great because we have people that don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government.”

Musk’s original post at the weekend had come after Trump had praised Doge’s work but urged him to “get more aggressive”.

Intelligence-related bodies, including the FBI, CIA and the National Security Agency, argued that employees could risk divulging classified information if they complied.

There was also resistance from other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon – both run by key Trump loyalists Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth respectively, and which told employees not to respond. The Department of Justice told its staff that they need not do so “due to the sensitive and confidential nature of the department’s work”.

The Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) – headed by one of Trump’s most contentious nominees, Robert F Kennedy Jr – told workers to be vague if they wished to answer.

“Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly,” staff were told in an email.

A more audacious sign of dissent was on display at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud), where television monitors played what appeared to be AI-generated false images of Trump sucking Musk’s toes in a loop, with “long live the real king” written over the footage, according to the Washington Post, citing people working at the department.

The episode crystallised an air of rebellion at many government agencies amid a mounting spate of court actions challenging the legality of Doge’s actions.

“There’s a full revolt going on right now,” Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a centre-right thinktank, told the Washington Post. “Doge’s stated objective was to reorganize the agencies to meet their goals, but Cabinet heads want to run their own agencies, and they are objecting to the across-the-board cuts coming from Musk’s team.”

Despite the backlash, Musk took Trump’s comments as a signal to again threaten workers with the sack.

“Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination,” he posted on his own social media platform, Twitter/X, on Monday.

A later post mocked the resistance to his original email. “Absurd that a 5 min email generates this level of concern!” he wrote. “Something is deeply wrong.”

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing about 800,000 of the 2.3 million-strong federal workforce, said Musk’s original email was a cynical ploy aimed at intimidating workers into resigning.

“If we took the time to comment on each and every ridiculous thing that Elon Musk tweets out, we’d never get any work done,” Brittany Holder, a union spokesperson said. “AFGE will challenge any unlawful discipline, termination or retaliation against our members and federal employees across the country.”