Trump Administration, Breaking With Musk’s Directive, Says Replying to His Email Is Voluntary – The New York Times

Elon Musk’s monthlong rampage through the federal bureaucracy appears to have met its first real test, as some of President Trump’s top loyalists flatly reject the billionaire’s demand that their employees justify their jobs or be summarily fired.

By Monday, just 48 hours after an email from Mr. Musk with the subject line “What did you do last week?” landed in the email boxes of millions of federal workers, personnel officials proclaimed the “request” to be voluntary even as Mr. Musk renewed his demand.

For the first time since the beginning of Mr. Trump’s return to power, government employees appeared to be fending off, at least for now, an ambush in their war with the world’s richest man. Even if the head-spinning series of events — contradictory tweets from Mr. Musk, comments from the president and emails from agency heads — left many of them confused.

After Mr. Musk’s email, several agencies quickly sent out emails telling their employees they did not need to provide the five bullet points about their activity that he wanted.

“There is no H.H.S. expectation that H.H.S. employees respond to O.P.M., and there is no impact to your employment with the agency if you choose not to respond,” said an email sent to employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, referring to the agency that sent Mr. Musk’s request, the Office of Personnel Management.

The Department of Health and Human Services added that anyone who wanted to respond should “assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.”