Numerous agencies defy Musk order for productivity report

Last week, Elon Musk created quite a buzz by sending a memo to all government staffers regarding a productivity letter.

The pushback was not just from the media and Democrats, however, as numerous agency heads told staffers to ignore Musk’s letter.

Musk Issues the Memo

Musk posted his request for productivity reports on X, writing, “Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’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.”

Democrats immediately pushed back, with Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) responding, "This is a good opportunity for mass civil disobedience. Musk has no authority to do this. Encourage all federal employees to report to work, prepare GFY letters and continue to demonstrate the public service and patriotism he lacks.

"It takes a remarkable combination of arrogance and stupidity to think that this is the best use of time for our intelligence officers, VA workers, air traffic controllers, and everyone else we depend on to do their job well.”

It turns out, Dems were not the only ones who thought this was a complete waste of time.

Low Bar

With everyone pushing back against the request, Musk set out to soften the blow of his request.

He stated, "To be clear, the bar is very low here. An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable! Should take less than 5 mins to write.”

He later added, "However, the passing grade is literally just 'Can you send an email with words that make any sense at all? It's a low bar."

While many conservatives loved the idea, there were numerous Trump officials who decided to nix it.

Ignore the Letter

Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel clearly did not like Musk demanding work performance reviews of his staff, so he countered the memo with one of his own, telling staff to disregard the note, as he would determine who was fit for work and who was not.

Tulsi Gabbard, the newly confirmed Director of National Intelligence, also told her staffers to ignore the memo, citing the risks of revealing classified information.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio did the same, telling all State employees they did not need to respond to Musk’s request, which resulted in pundits saying there was a clear power struggle. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took the opportunity to slam the administration, stating, “Secondly, as a former governor too, from a management perspective, you can see what a clown car this is right now because you’ve got, for instance, FBI Director Kash Patel appropriately emailing his people in response saying, don’t answer it.”

This is not a good look for Trump or his administration, as everyone is clearly not on the same page. Before Musk sent out that memo, it should have been confirmed that Trump spoke to every key cabinet member and was assured they would fall in line, but that clearly did not happen. Musk looks like a fool, and to a degree, so does Trump. They simply cannot afford missteps like this.