The Department of Defense took to social media site X to publicly tell its employees to ignore, at least for now, an email requesting a list of their accomplishments for the past week that was touted by Elon Musk on social media.
The agency is among a list of U.S. federal agencies pushing back against the email, sent out Saturday from the Office of Personnel Management. The email, sent under the subject line, “What did you do last week?” appears to be the latest step in Musk’s mission of identifying government waste and slashing the federal workforce under the Trump administration’s DOGE.
The endeavor has been one the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla has taken on with the blessing of President Donald Trump, who has espoused the need for the U.S. to cut federal spending.
But many have questioned whether Musk, who was designated as a “special government employee,” even has the authority to make such demands. Several federal agencies have directed their employees to hold off on acquiescing to Musk’s ultimatum that they account for their time or be fired.
The guidance issued by the Department of Defense, which is led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a staunch Trump ally, was notably made in a public forum, rather than a staffwide email or other form of communication.
“When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM,” the agency said on social media site X, which Musk owns. “For now, please pause any responses to the OPM email.”
Federal employees must report ‘what they got done last week’ or lose jobs
Musk, the unofficial leader of DOGE teased the imminent arrival of the email in a Saturday post on X with an ominous warning: “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
The email from a human resources address, which was reviewed by USA TODAY, directs federal workers to reply with “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.” The email, which gave employees until 11:59 p.m. ET Monday to respond, also requested that no classified information, links or attachments be part of responses.
Musk’s message hit the inboxes of federal workers who have survived the firing of thousands of workers in the past two weeks during an unprecedented cutdown of the government workforce across a swath of agencies. Some workers were reinstated days after they were fired, including at the National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs.
Contrary to Musk’s X post, the email did not mention termination or disciplinary action for employees failing to respond promptly. Unions and other experts have questioned what, if any, legal basis Musk would have for carrying out the threatened firings.
Defense Department among agencies to tell workers to not respond
The murky legality of the demand has led to signs of tension between the Republican administration and the Trump-empowered Musk. Many agencies have quickly intervened to head off responses, including those led by Trump allies.
That includes the FBI, whose director Kash Patel, a Trump appointee, said in an email seen by Reuters that only the agency’s office of the director “is in charge of all our review processes.”
According to sources and emails reviewed by Reuters, other agencies that have directed workers to not respond pending further guidance include:
Department of Homeland SecurityDepartment of EducationDepartment of Commercethe Federal Deposit Insurance Corporationthe National Institutes of Healthoffices within the Justice Department, including the executive office that supports all U.S. attorneys and the department’s civil divisionthe Drug Enforcement Administration, part of the Justice Department
Musk has struggled to produce receipts showing that his cost-cutting measures saved the $55 billion that he initially claimed. A site documenting DOGE’s savings claimed the largest federal contract it eliminated saved $8 billion – in reality, it was only worth around $8 million.
Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY; Reuters
