President Donald Trump said that even if agency officials are told they are voluntary to adhere to the mask order, federal employees will explain their recent performance and announce the risk of being fired. He supported Elon Musk’s request.
Confusion and anger over the situation have filed new lawsuits and added to the chaos within the federal workforce.
“What he’s doing is saying, ‘Are you actually working?’,” Trump said in his oval office during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. “And if you don’t answer, you’re kind of semi-fired or fired, because there aren’t many people there so you’re not answering.”
The Republican president said Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency has discovered “a multi-tens of billions of dollar fraud.” He did not provide evidence of his claim.
Even if Trump and Musk pressed their case, the Human Resources Administration informed agency leaders that workers would not need to respond by 11:59pm Monday.
In an email to the workforce early on Monday obtained by NBC News, the Department of Justice said in a meeting with the Inter-Ministerial Chief Human Capital Officer Council that OPM has voluntary responses to the email. He said he had notified him. OPM also made it clear that despite what Musk posted, not responding to emails is not equivalent to resigning, the email said.
The mask says workers will be given another opportunity as pushback mounts
Conflicting directives led to various advice depending on where federal employees were working. Some were told to answer a request for a list of five things I did last week, while others were notified that it was an option, while others were instructed not to answer at all.
Musk suffered from resistance, and said federal workers “hate the smallest accountability.” He continued to threaten the shooting hours after employees were told they didn’t need to comply with his requests.
“At the president’s discretion, they will be given another opportunity,” he posted on the social media platform X. “If the second response fails, a termination occurs.”
Attorneys representing unions, businesses, veterans and conservation groups filed an updated lawsuit in California’s federal court on Monday, alleging that masks violated the law by threatening mass shootings.
President Trump, who appeared in the White House with French President Macron, commented on Elon Musk’s request over the weekend, commenting that federal employees were e-mailing the results of their work.
The lawsuit led by the State Democracy Advocate Fund called it “one of the largest employment frauds in the country’s history.”
“When these employees are charged with taxpayer-funded salaries, they’ll temporarily re-coup their achievements with their managers to file a frivolous lawsuit,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said. Maybe it was. The private sector, over 100 times more.”
Musk is leading Trump’s efforts to overhaul and reduce the federal government. They urged employees to resign, directed agencies to fire probation workers, and directed them to halt work at some agencies altogether.
There have been pushbacks in protests from around Washington and within the government. The Special Advisory Office, a watchdog of the federal workforce, said Monday that dismissals of some probation workers could be illegal. Trump is about to fire Hampton Dillinger, the leader of the office, in a case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dellinger asked the US Merit Systems Protection Board to stop layoffs of six employees, suggesting that more workers should be protected from losing their jobs.
There are also indications that Musk is testing the limits of his impact. Some executives, including some of Trump’s toughest allies, such as FBI Director Kash Patel, have cited employees privacy and security concerns and put in place their own process for agencies to evaluate employees. Focusing on what they have, I’m telling them not to respond to emails requesting five things. .
“If you need more information, we’ll adjust the answer. Please pause the answer for now,” Patel wrote in an email.
It was the most important public difference between billionaire entrepreneurs who are keen to serve the purpose of billionaires and Senate-approved ministers.
Trump dismissed the idea that there are all sorts of divisions, including his most powerful advisors.
“They don’t mean that in any way combatively with Elon,” he said, adding, “Everyone thought it was a pretty original idea.”
The latest turbulence began on the weekend when Trump posted to his social media website.
Following Musk, he said, “All federal employees will receive an email promptly asking for a request to understand what they did last week,” and he said, “The failure to respond to the resignation and It will be considered.” The directive reflects how he has managed his company.
OPM has since submitted its own request.
“Please reply to this email with about what you achieved last week and the manager’s CC’s five bullets,” the message said. However, it says nothing about the possibility that an employee will be fired for violations.
There was quick resistance from several major US agencies led by the president’s loyalty, including the State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon, instructing employees not to respond over the weekend. Lawmakers from both major political parties said mask missions could be illegal.
What did the federal agency tell employees?
A Justice Department employee was told in an email Monday morning that he would not need to respond to a request “due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the department’s work.”
However, employees at the U.S. Lawyer’s Office in Washington were instructed to respond “generally” and excluded case-specific or other sensitive information. In an email viewed by the Associated Press, the attorney was provided with guidance on how to respond to the number of court hearings attended, the defendants they requested, the cases resolved, or other tasks.
The Department of Health and Human Services told staff “There is no HHS expectation that HHS employees will respond.” If anyone wanted to write back, they were instructed to be ambiguous.
“I assume that what you write is read by a malicious foreign actor and adjusts your response accordingly,” the email to the employee said.
Educational workers were instructed to follow Monday morning. “Emails are legal and employees must respond,” wrote Rachel Oglesby, department chief of staff. She added, “Frontline supervisors evaluate responses and non-responses.”
Charles Ezell, acting director of OPM, suggested that the mask request could lead to new expectations for employees. “The officials may consider taking in the expectations that employees will submit weekly results bullets,” he wrote in an email to staff.
Thousands of government officials have been fired or driven out of the federal workforce through offers of “deferred resignation” in the first month of Trump’s second term. There are no official figures for total firing or layoffs, but the AP tallyed hundreds of thousands of workers affected. Many work outside of Washington.
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Associated Press authors Steve Peoples, Eric Tucker, Amanda Seits, Byron Taw, Ellen Nick Meyer, Matthew Peron, Alana Durkin Richer and Valerie Gonzalez of McAllen, Washington, contributed to this report.
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