Federal agencies push back against Elon Musk's '5 bullets' email as he says non-responders will be fired

Elon Musk on Monday doubled down on his assertion that those federal employees who don't reply to his email demanding to know "5 bullets of what you accomplished last week" would lose their jobs if they did not reply. "Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere," Musk said. This comes after some high-profile agency heads told their workers to hold off on a response.

Trump's agency heads, however, including Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and those at DHS, State and the Pentagon told those working in their agencies to hold off on responding to Musk at this time, the Daily Mail reports. Musk said he sent the email because he was interested "to see who had a pulse and two working neurons." On Friday, Musk attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, during which he was gifted a chainsaw by Argentine President Javier Milei. Musk said it was a chainsaw "for bureaucracy."

"Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM [Office of Personnel Management] email," Gabbard said to workers. Similarly, Patel said that his agency, the FBI, "is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures." He went on to say that "When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses."

The Department of Defense said that the DOD "is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures. When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled 'What did you do that week.'"

The State Department's Ambassador Tibor Nagy said the Department would respond on behalf of the agency. Department of Justice supervisors under Attorney General Pam Bondi said that employees should "refrain from replying to the email, as they feared it could trigger ethics violations," per The Independent. Ed Martin, of the US Attorney's office, told workers "DOGE and Elon are doing great work! History. We are happy to participate." The Department of Health was similarly on board with the ask, saying it was a "legitimate" request. 

The American Federation of Government Employees also told their 800,000 members not to respond, echoing the sentiment that employees responding directly to the OPM violates the chain of command. "Federal employees report to their respective agencies through their established chains of command; they do not report to OPM," the president of the union said. "I am also requesting that OPM rescind the email and apologize to all federal employees."

The union representing National Treasury workers "strongly" advised their members not to respond to the five things ask, saying "We are concerned about the implications of this request and are actively working to protect your rights and interests."

Musk's email, with the subject line "What did you do last week?" read: "Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. Please do not send any classified information, links or attachments." The deadline for a reply is Monday night at 11:59 pm.

On Saturday, Musk said "Consistent with President Donald Trump'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."

Many federal workers have already been downsized, laid off, put on leave, or terminated outright, although lawsuits from government worker unions and from employees themselves could be forthcoming as it appears that quantity of terminations, and not merit, was the metric for the removals.

DOGE, the agency that was initially proposed as an advisory group to review government expenditures and make recommendations for cuts, has since become an official government agency after the Obama-era US Digital Service initiative was remade as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

DOGE claims that is has saved some $55 billion in federal expenditures, from agency budgets for mission-driven initiatives, contracts, and selling assets to personnel costs. Trump over the weekend praised Musk, saying "Elon is doing a great job but I would like to see him get more aggressive."