{"id":8688,"date":"2025-02-25T13:55:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/trump-administration-breaking-with-musks-directive-says-replying-to-his-email-is-voluntary\/"},"modified":"2025-02-25T13:55:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:55:50","slug":"trump-administration-breaking-with-musks-directive-says-replying-to-his-email-is-voluntary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/trump-administration-breaking-with-musks-directive-says-replying-to-his-email-is-voluntary\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration, Breaking With Musk\u2019s Directive, Says Replying to His Email Is Voluntary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Elon Musk\u2019s monthlong rampage through the federal bureaucracy appears to have met its first real test, as some of President Trump\u2019s top loyalists flatly reject the billionaire\u2019s demand that their employees justify their jobs or be summarily fired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By Monday, just 48 hours after an email from Mr. Musk with the subject line \u201cWhat did you do last week?\u201d landed in the email boxes of millions of federal workers, personnel officials proclaimed the \u201crequest\u201d to be voluntary even as Mr. Musk renewed his demand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For the first time since the beginning of Mr. Trump\u2019s return to power, government employees appeared to be fending off, at least for now, an ambush in their war with the world\u2019s richest man. Even if the head-spinning series of events \u2014 contradictory tweets from Mr. Musk, comments from the president and emails from agency heads \u2014 left many of them confused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After Mr. Musk\u2019s email, several agencies quickly sent out emails telling their employees they did not need to provide the five bullet points about their activity that he wanted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is no H.H.S. expectation that H.H.S. employees respond to O.P.M., and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond,\u201d said an email sent to employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, referring to the agency that sent Mr. Musk\u2019s request, the Office of Personnel Management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Department of Health and Human Services added that anyone who wanted to respond should \u201cassume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At virtually the same time that employees were told a response was no longer necessary, Mr. Trump weighed in during a visit with President Emmanuel Macron of France, praising Mr. Musk\u2019s demand as \u201cgenius\u201d and saying that employees who did not respond would be \u201csemi-fired\u201d or \u201cfired.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Late Monday evening, Mr. Musk offered another twist on his social media site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSubject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance,\u201d Mr. Musk wrote, apparently referring to federal employees who did not respond to his email by his original deadline of Monday at midnight. \u201cFailure to respond a second time will result in termination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!\u201d he said in another post. \u201cYet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers. Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Also on Monday, the Office of Personnel Management sent out a new memo reiterating the request and the deadline, though allowing agency heads to \u201cexclude personnel from this expectation at their discretion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Until this weekend, Mr. Trump\u2019s most senior officials had uniformly embraced Mr. Musk\u2019s call for a smaller, more efficient government, free of what Republicans call \u201cwoke\u201d ideology. Thousands of employees have been fired or put on leave. Entire agencies, like the U.S. Agency for International Development, have been all but shuttered. Remote workers have been told to return to the office or be fired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the response to the weekend email suggests that there may in fact be limits to how far Mr. Musk, acting on Mr. Trump\u2019s behalf as the leader of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, can push the bureaucracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Across the executive suites of the federal agencies, the Musk email triggered concerns about turf and security. The message fractured Mr. Trump\u2019s cabinet, with the leaders of some departments ordering their employees to comply and others directing workers to ignore the threat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Chiefs of staff and personnel chiefs at the national security and intelligence agencies spent Saturday and Sunday trying to develop a coordinated response, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions. The result of that effort began when Kash Patel, Mr. Trump\u2019s newly installed F.B.I. director, told the bureau\u2019s employees to \u201cpause any responses\u201d to the Musk directive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The official, who asked not to be identified in order to discuss internal deliberations, said there was some concern that Mr. Musk might lash out over the weekend on his social media platform. The official said the weekend\u2019s activity added to anger at Mr. Musk among cabinet secretaries and agency heads for interfering with their departments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The responses from several department heads made it clear that they were offended by the idea that an outsider was trying to take over their personnel decisions. Other responses indicated that agency heads were concerned that employees might reveal secret or even classified information in their responses to Mr. Musk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the C.I.A., senior officials did not put out a public statement, but some people at the agency were quietly instructed not to respond to Mr. Musk\u2019s email in the hopes that the problem would go away, according to a person familiar with the decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">White House officials denied that there had been any impact on Mr. Musk\u2019s authority, or even any dissension among the president\u2019s top officials across the government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEveryone is working together as one unified team at the direction of President Trump,\u201d said Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. \u201cAny notion to the contrary is completely false.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said that the fast-moving efforts by Mr. Musk and DOGE were \u201cexactly the point\u201d even if they ruffled some feathers inside the administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the whiplash over the directives left many of the country\u2019s 2.3 million federal workers unsure exactly what they should do \u2014 even after Monday\u2019s reassurance from the Office of Personnel Management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even as televisions played Mr. Trump\u2019s comments lauding Mr. Musk, his personnel department informed agencies that responding to the Musk email was now \u201cvoluntary\u201d and that failing to respond would not be considered a resignation, as Mr. Musk had indicated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The dissent among the top ranks of Mr. Trump\u2019s administration was rare for a president whose demands for absolute loyalty have resulted in dramatic executive actions by his subordinates, all acting in lock step to quickly push through Mr. Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Over the weekend, numerous top officials defied Mr. Musk, urging their employees to \u201cpause\u201d or \u201cnot respond\u201d to the demand for a description of five things they did the previous week. Employees at the Departments of State, Defense, Energy, Homeland Security and Justice were all flatly told not to comply.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cFor now, D.O.E. employees are asked to please pause on any direct response to the O.P.M. email,\u201d Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a weekend email. A top State Department official wrote, \u201cNo employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their department chain of command.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At the same time, the president\u2019s handpicked leaders at the Treasury, the General Services Administration, the Department of Transportation and the Office of Management and Budget told employees to follow Mr. Musk\u2019s weekend directive. A Treasury email said, \u201cYou are directed to respond to this message before the deadline,\u201d adding that \u201cwe expect that compliance will not be difficult or time-consuming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The split among advisers came just two days before Mr. Trump is set to convene his first full cabinet meeting of his second term at the White House on Wednesday. Eight years ago, his first cabinet meeting turned into a session of gushing praise for Mr. Trump as his top aides extolled, as one put it, the \u201cblessing\u201d of working for the president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That could still happen again on Wednesday. People in Mr. Trump\u2019s current orbit have repeatedly sung his praises in recent weeks. After a meeting with Russian officials last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said over and over again that \u201cTrump is the only leader who can bring peace to Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Madeleine Ngo<!-- --> and <!-- -->Nicholas Nehamas<!-- --> contributed reporting from Washington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/24\/us\/politics\/elon-musk-email-federal-workers.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elon Musk\u2019s monthlong rampage through the federal bureaucracy appears to have met its first real test, as some of President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[114,511,1373,3133,1224,235,144,165,510,1225,364,1506,2783,113,111],"class_list":["post-8688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us","tag-donald-j","tag-elon","tag-federal-bureau-of-investigation","tag-general-services-administration","tag-government-efficiency-department-us","tag-government-employees","tag-health-and-human-services-department","tag-homeland-security-department","tag-musk","tag-office-of-personnel-management","tag-presidential-transition-us","tag-transportation-department-us","tag-treasury-department","tag-trump","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Trump 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