Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s “justify-your-job” diktat to US federal employees faced an unexpected backlash from within the Trump administration on Sunday in what is seen as an early sign of power struggles to come. The pushback came from Kash Patel, who took over as the ninth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Saturday. 

Patel has reportedly asked all FBI employees to “pause any responses” to Musk’s email ultimatum to federal workers that he sent as part of his supposedly unofficial role as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information. The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures. When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses,” Patel told his staff in an email, according to an NBC report.

Musk’s Ultimatum

US President Donald Trump’s billionaire advisor Musk on Saturday said that all US federal employees must justify their work or lose their jobs, hours after the president pushed him to be “more aggressive” in slashing government spending.

“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,” Musk wrote.

According to an AFP report, federal workers were asked to submit “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”

The email came from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), with the subject line “What did you do last week?”. The deadline to reply was 11:59 pm Monday, though the message did not say failure to do so would lead to termination. 

Musk — the world’s richest person and Trump’s biggest donor — has led the effort to fire swaths of the government workforce.

Don’t Respond: Agencies Tell Employees

According to an AFP report, several federal employees said they were advised by their agencies not to respond to Musk’s email and wait for further instruction, a recommendation echoed by the National Treasury Employees Union. 

“I have so much work to do, I am not going to neglect actual patient care for this drama,” a physician at the Department of Veterans Affairs, who received the email, told AFP.

Musk later appeared to downplay the requirements of the request, writing on X that the bar is “very low” and saying, “An email with some bullet points that make any sense at all is acceptable!”