The idyll between Elon Musk and President Donald Trump has encountered a bump: the opposition of some members of the Republican Administration itself to apply the ultimatum launched by the owner of X against federal workers. Either a symptom of an incipient internal rebellion against the arbitrariness of the tandem Trump-Musk or another consequence of chaos unleashed, the senior government officials have contradicted the threat that the billionaire launched against the federal staff.
The weekend, the Doge working group, which theoretically leads Musk – although the White House said in a judicial document that he was not the administrator – sent to the officials an email in which he gave them 48 hours to explain what they had done The last week. If not responding before midnight on Monday, they would be fired. The opposition by numerous senior administration officials, including faithful followers of Trump such as Kash Patel, the new director of the FBI, has resulted in a repeated momentary by Musk.
When a few hours were missing for midnight, the billionaire has published a new tweet in which he announced that federal workers were given a second chance. “At the discretion of the president, they will be given another chance. If you do not respond a second time, the contract will be terminated, ”he said in X.
Trump, who seeks to achieve a docile administration, has backed Musk in the midst of confrontation. During his appearance this Monday from the White House with the French president Emmanuel Macron, the Republican has assured that if there is no response to the mail, there is a risk of being “semi fired” or “fired.” “If you do not answer, it is as if you were half fired or fired, because many people do not respond, since they do not even exist,” said the president this Monday at noon.
When a journalist has asked Trump about the opposite directions that some department leaders have sent, the president has tried to take away iron: “That was done in a friendly way. Only in cases like, perhaps, Marco [Rubio] In the State Department, where they handle very confidential information, or the FBI, which works on confidential things. And they don’t say it in a combative way with Elon at all. They are just saying that there are certain people who do not really want to ask them to tell you what they worked last week.
The hours after the initial mail, the Personnel Management Office (OPM), the agency that functions as a kind of human resources department for all government employees, already said that employees would not be fired for not responding to Musk’s ultimatum .
As explained by the OPM to the Washington Postthe agency is not clear how to proceed with the emails of those workers who had responded. Nor do they have plans to analyze them. Among the high positions of agencies and departments, Musk’s mail unleashed concerns about issues related to security and critical information. In the case of the CIA, according to the New York Times, A public statement was not issued contradicting Musk, but some people were ordered not to respond to email.
Even allies faithful to Trump, as the newly released director of the FBI, Kash Patel, have asked their employees not to respond to email, according to Associated Press. “When more information is needed, we will coordinate the answers. For now, I ask you to stop responding, ”Patel wrote in an email.
Patel is one of the most staunch allies of the president and who came to instigate the conspiracy theory that the assault on the Capitol was a assembly made by the same agency he now directs. But it seems that Musk’s mail, which could call in question security and privacy, goes beyond that loyalty. Similarly, the Department of Justice had to tell its employees not to respond “due to the confidential and sensitive nature of the work of the department.” State Department officials have also received a similar message.
Musk’s measure is a new onslaught against the administration after Trump published a post in which he praised Doge’s work, but said he would like to “see him more aggressive.” A few days later Musk took the idea of sending email with the question “What did you do last week?” Like the rest of the actions previously directed by Doge, the legality of this measure is not clear. The employees of some agencies cannot reveal information by law, and although the mail did not ask details, the margin that leaves is very broad. Nor did he mention the people who had been on vacation or permission.
To justify the new attempt of scissors and without any tests that support it, Musk has fed the theory that there are “non -existent” or “deceased” officials that are used to get federal money. “The reason why this is It is important that a significant number of people who are supposed to work for the government do so little work that they do not even check their email. In some cases, we believe that non -existent people or identities of deceased persons are being used to collect payment checks. In other words, it is a total fraud, ”he wrote Musk in an X post on Sunday.
Since Trump arrived at the White House on January 20, the official has undergone a constant purge. Among some of the offensives launched against federal employees is the encouraged resignation plan and the closure of the USAID cooperation agency, in which thousands of workers have been placed on administrative license. The unleashed chaos is such that there are still no total figures of the impact that is having on the administration.
One of the president’s last ads has been the fact that he wants to reocup what was the USAID headquarters, located in the Ronald Reagan building in Washington, with border service workers (CBP). Trump celebrated him as an improvement of his administration during his speech at the CPAC this Saturday.
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