Elon Musk, appointed by President Donald Trump to lead the newly named Department of Government Efficiency and tasked with rooting out waste in federal agencies, renewed his threat to fire federal workers who fail to justify their jobs.

His threat comes after a weekend email directive - urging employees to summarize their work - sparked widespread confusion and raised serious questions about his actual authority within the administration.

In a post on X, Musk dismissed the email’s requirement as “utterly trivial” since passing the test simply meant typing a few words and pressing send. “Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers,” he wrote. Musk warned that, subject to the president’s discretion, workers who do not respond a second time would face termination.

The directive, sent out over the weekend, prompted mixed responses across the federal government. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) later issued guidance stating that responding to Musk’s email was voluntary and that employees should refrain from disclosing any confidential or sensitive information. Despite the memo, some agencies, such as the General Services Administration and OPM itself, continued to encourage staff to respond.

A senior manager at the GSA noted that the agency was still nudging employees to reply, while the Department of Health and Human Services advised workers to keep their responses general due to concerns that their answers might be scrutinized by foreign actors.

The Trump administration, which has been aggressively downsizing parts of the federal workforce - having already laid off more than 20,000 workers and offering buyouts to 75,000 others - has triggered additional turmoil across government agencies. Some departments, including the Transportation and Treasury Departments, as well as independent agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission, instructed employees to respond to Musk’s email, while others warned against bypassing established chains of command.

Trump, speaking earlier on Monday, backed Musk’s approach, calling the email “great” and emphasizing that the goal was to determine whether workers were actually performing their duties. Meanwhile, a federal judge blocked Trump’s downsizing team, led by Musk, from accessing sensitive data maintained by the U.S. Education Department and OPM.

Musk’s initiative, part of the administration’s broader effort to “root out government waste,” has not only unsettled federal employees but has also forced companies doing business with the government to lay off workers and defer vendor payments. The directive was even sent to federal judges and other court employees, despite them being part of a separate branch of government.

As the deadline for response looms, labor unions have taken legal action, seeking a federal judge’s intervention to declare Musk’s email illegal. The episode underscores the growing tension and uncertainty within the federal workforce amid Trump’s sweeping, and controversial, efforts to downsize government operations.

Musk’s latest remarks and the ensuing confusion highlight the challenges inherent in attempting to rapidly reshape government staffing, particularly when directives conflict with established policies and the guidance of federal agencies. The White House has yet to offer further comment on the matter.

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