Govt agencies defy Musk's job justification demand

WASHINGTON — Multiple US agencies have told employees not to respond immediately to a demand by President Donald Trump's adviser Elon Musk to list their accomplishments in the past week or be fired, as a chaotic campaign to cull the federal workforce pushes forward.

Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI and State Department sent their staff members emails telling them not to respond outside their chains of command — a possible sign of tension between members of the Trump administration and the tech billionaire in his campaign to slash the 2.3 million-strong federal civilian workforce.

"The FBI, through the office of the director, is in charge of all our review processes," said the new FBI Director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee, in an email to staff members seen by Reuters.

Musk leads the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which in the first weeks of Trump's administration has laid off more than 20,000 workers and offered buyouts to another 75,000 across wide swaths of the government — from the Defense Department to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The frantic pace has led the federal government in some cases to rush to rehire workers who perform critical functions such as securing the country's nuclear arsenal and trying to fight the worsening bird flu outbreak, which has caused egg prices to spike.

While there is bipartisan agreement that the United States government, which carries $36 trillion in debt, would benefit from reform, Musk's approach has drawn widespread criticism, including from voters in some Republican-dominated areas.

On Saturday evening, federal workers received an email instructing them to detail the work they did during the previous week by 11:59 pm ET on Monday, shortly after Musk posted on X that failing to respond would be taken as resignation.

The subject of the email read, "What did you do last week?" and came from a human resources address in the Office of Personnel Management, but did not include Musk's threat of termination.

Staffers at the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Education and Commerce, as well as at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Institutes of Health and the Internal Revenue Service were also told not to respond pending further guidance, according to sources and emails reviewed by Reuters.

USAID clampdown

In another development, the Trump administration said on Sunday it was placing all personnel at the US Agency for International Development, except leaders and critical staff members, on paid administrative leave and eliminating 1,600 positions in the US.

"I regret to inform you that you are affected by a Reduction in Force action," said an email sent to one of the workers being fired that was reviewed by Reuters. Those who got the note will be let go from federal service effective April 24, the email said.

USAID said on its website that just before midnight on Sunday, all direct hires except essential workers will be put on leave and 1,600 USAID personnel in the US would be cut.

Agencies via Xinhua