"What did you do last week?" - this is the email that millions of American federal employees received from Elon Musk. The goal is obviously to justify their work to Musk, whose Office of Government Efficiency DOGE aims to reduce bureaucracy and the number of employees in the US administration.
"The first serious test for Musk"
However, another atypical move by the billionaire was met with reactions from Donald Trump's associates and became the first truly serious test for Musk, whose actions raise serious questions about their legality, according to American publications. Several heads of American ministries and agencies instructed their employees not to respond to the inquiry. For the first time since Trump returned to power, government officials seem to have managed to fend off the attack in their war with the richest man in the world, the New York Times commented in this regard.
Secretaries instructed employees not to respond
FBI Director Kash Patel sent an email to agency employees, instructing them not to respond to Musk for now, NBC reported. "The FBI is responsible for all of our processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures," he wrote.
The Department of Health and Human Services has informed employees that "there will be no impact on your work if you choose not to respond," the New York Times reported. The department advises every employee to "accept that what they write will be read by malicious foreign actors, and to adapt their response accordingly."
Employees at the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon have also been instructed not to answer Musk's questions, media outlets reported.
Labor organizations have filed a lawsuit against the order, stating that there is no law or regulation requiring federal employees to report their work to an external body.
Trump supports Musk
However, while agency and department heads oppose Musk, Donald Trump commented on the topic during his joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Washington. Trump praised Musk's request and said that employees who do not respond will be "semi-fired" or "fired". The American president nevertheless admitted that those working with classified and confidential information may not respond to the request.
Musk repeated his threat later that evening: "At the president's discretion, they may be given another chance. If they do not respond a second time, they will be fired," he wrote in X.
The dispute between Musk and members of Trump's cabinet is likely to grow, writes Eugene Robinson in a commentary for "The Washington Post". Because even if they support the idea of reducing the administration, the actions of the team led by Musk create serious difficulties for the work of their subordinates and corrupt their authority in the ministries and agencies they lead. "Thus begins the inevitable power struggle in the court of the Mad King Donald between his various ministers and the billionaire Lord High Executor," writes Robison.