Some federal officials are reminding their employees that Elon Musk is not their boss and they don't have to answer to him, according to new reporting in Mother Jones.
The directive from several department heads came after Musk and the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to an unknown number of federal employees with the subject line: "What did you do last week?" The email, sent Saturday, advised the employees to "reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager."
Musk also posted to X, "Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."
But not all managers are falling in line behind Musk, reported Julianne McShane with Mother Jones.
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"The biggest surprise may have been the federal officials—including a couple of Trump loyalists—who sought to guard their own turf from Musk, even by quickly telling their staff to essentially ignore the email, because Musk is not their boss," she wrote.
One of those "Trump loyalists" is newly-confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, who wrote to employees Saturday night telling them to "please pause any responses" to the email. Patel added, "The FBI...will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures."
Ed Martin, Interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who was appointed by Trump to run the RNC's 2024 platform committee, advised his employees to “be general” in their responses and promised to protect them, CNN reported. Martin wrote, “If anyone gives you problems, I’ve got your back."
In addition, NBC reported, the acting under-secretary of management at the State Department told his staff that the department itself would handle the response. "No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” he wrote.
McShane wrote, "So far, it seems the only official who has publicly ordered employees to comply was Secret Service Director Sean Curran, who told employees that the email 'requires your response,' according to CNN. Spokespeople for the White House and the Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to questions."