Trump’s leaders at federal agencies rebuff Musk demand that workers justify their week or be fired

The directive that all federal employees share what work they accomplished last week or be fired is running into resistance, including from President Trump’s choices to lead federal departments.

Leaders at the Pentagon, the State Department, the Office of National Intelligence and the FBI told their workers Sunday to ignore the edict that originated with Elon Musk, Mr. Trump’s efficiency czar, and a federal workers union immediately vowed to sue.

Leading the refusal was FBI Director Kash Patel, who directed bureau staff to ignore a request.

“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Mr. Patel, who has orders from Mr. Trump to clean house, said in a message to employees. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any response.”

Mr. Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, issued the justify-your-job ultimatum Saturday, soon after the president encouraged him to be more “aggressive” in his cost-cutting efforts.

“Consistent with President [Trump’s] instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Mr. Musk said on X. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

The Office of Personnel Management emailed federal employees shortly after Mr. Musk’s tweet with the subject line “What did you do last week?”

The email included instructions for employees to list “approx. five bullets of what you accomplished last week and CC your manager.” It also asked federal workers not to list any classified information. Federal workers have until the end of Monday to respond.

Mr. Musk’s promise of termination for failure to comply appears nowhere in the email from OPM.

Several other agencies followed Mr. Patel’s refusal of the demand.

Acting Undersecretary of Defense Darin S. Selnick posted a message on the Pentagon’s X page addressed to workers who may have received the OPM directive.

“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” Mr. Selnick wrote. “When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from O.P.M.”

Tibor Nagy, the State Department’s acting undersecretary for management, said in an email to employees that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers.

“No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” Mr. Nagy wrote in an email.

The New York Times reported that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told her employees they “should not respond to the OPM email.”

The American Federation of Government Employees, the union representing federal workers, responded to Mr. Musk by vowing to challenge any “unlawful terminations” in court.

“It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

Capitol Hill Republicans questioned the move Sunday, though some defended Mr. Musk’s questions as reasonable.

“I don’t know how that is necessarily feasible,” Rep. Michael Lawler, New York Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, said Mr. Musk should learn about the jobs he is trying to cut.

“Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform,” she said on X. “The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said it is not too much to ask federal employees to detail what they did last week.

“If you are some federal worker working remote, you should be able to name those things,” Mr. Jordan said. “I don’t think that’s a big deal.”

The Musk email follows the Trump administration’s push to shrink the federal workforce. What started with a deferred resignation for federal employees, which more than 77,000 accepted, morphed into an expanded culling of probationary workers — federal employees in their first or second year of employment — across a broad swath of federal agencies.

Mr. Musk is seeking to cut $1 trillion from the federal deficit.

Mr. Trump signed an executive order this month requiring federal agencies to work with Mr. Musk and DOGE to make “preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force.”

The Pentagon announced Friday that it planned to fire some 5,400 employees.

Although it is unclear whether Mr. Musk has the legal authority to carry out widespread terminations for federal workers who don’t meet the email’s criteria, he posted the message after the president lauded his work and urged him to be “more aggressive.”

• Mike Glenn contributed to this report.