Some officials welcomed the move. Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee for US Attorney in Washington, DC, who is serving in an interim capacity, praised Musk and DOGE in an email response.
But other offices within the Justice Department, including the executive office that supports all US attorneys and the department’s civil division, told employees not to reply pending additional information.
Employees at the Drug Enforcement Administration, part of the Justice Department, were told to respond, according to an email seen by Reuters.
UNION QUESTIONS MUSK’S AUTHORITY
The largest federal workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees, wrote on social media on Sunday that it did not believe Musk has the authority to fire employees who do not respond and would formally request that OPM rescind the message.
Meanwhile, the union advised members to ask their supervisors directly whether to reply and to follow their guidance.
The email left some employees even more frustrated and worried after weeks of uncertainty about their futures.
“I really wonder when someone is going to say, ‘Enough,'” one IRS employee told Reuters.
Spokespersons for the Commerce, Justice, Education and Treasury departments, as well as at the FDIC and NIH, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. An FBI spokesperson declined to comment, and a State Department spokesperson referred questions to the White House.
Musk on his social media platform X called the email “a very basic pulse check” and displayed a fictional list he had generated using artificial intelligence.
“EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH!! What is wrong with them??” Musk wrote.
US Senator John Curtis, a Republican from Utah, said he supports the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce government spending but that Musk should take a more humane approach.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s, ‘Please put a dose of compassion in this,'” Curtis said on CBS News. “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both.”
