Government Meltdown Over DOGE Simmers as Trump Admin Says Response to Musk Email 'Voluntary'

The confusion and chaos brewing across the federal government due to Elon Musk's email asking federal employees to explain their recent work contributions is starting to simmer. 

The billionaire who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) sent a request to roughly 2 million federal workers to list five accomplishments from last week by a deadline of 11:59 p.m. EST Monday or face potential termination.

"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk wrote on X Saturday. 

Then the Office of Personnel Management informed agency leaders that their workers would not be required to respond by the deadline, calling the responses "voluntary."

The conflicting directives led to anxiety and confusion among workers. Some were told to answer the request for a list of five things that they did last week, others were informed it was optional, and others were directed not to answer at all. 

Some of President Trump's top officials told staff to ignore Musk's directive. 

New FBI Director Kash Patel called for a "pause" on responses, while Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard warned employees not to disclose classified work.

Trump backed the decision of his Cabinet members not to respond to "confidential things." 

"They don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon," Trump told reporters Monday afternoon. "They're just saying there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they're working on last week."

At the same time, he also said federal workers would still be required to email Musk back. 

"I thought [the email] was great because we have people that don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government," Trump said. "So, by asking the question, 'Tell us what you did this week,' what he's doing is saying, 'Are you actually working?'"

Lawsuits have piled up with attorneys for federal workers calling the demand "unlawful"—filing a new complaint to block mass layoffs.

A lawsuit spearheaded by the State Democracy Defenders Fund called it "one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country."

Anna Kelly, a White House deputy press secretary, condemned the federal workers' litigation by saying, "In the time it took these employees on taxpayer-funded salaries to file a frivolous lawsuit, they could have briefly recapped their accomplishments to their managers, as is common in the private sector, 100 times over."

Meanwhile, major job cuts are now officially underway at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with 1,600 employees fired and others placed on leave. 

As CBN News reported, DOGE exposed that USAID stands accused of wasting millions of dollars to fund an array of questionable projects like sex changes, LGBT activism, a "DEI musical," a transgender opera, and birth control around the globe. 

A federal judge went forward with green-lighting the firings, rejecting union pushback. 

Additionally, at the Pentagon, two members of the joint chiefs and four generals were removed over the weekend.

***Please sign up for CBN Newsletters and download the CBN News app to ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a Christian perspective.***