The main assistants of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, are struggling to contain disputes at the White House and throughout the administration after the ultimatum of the billionaire Elon Musk to federal workers to enumerate their achievements or lose their jobs, said three government officials familiar with tensions.
Before the weekend, the White House felt sure that the coordination had improved between superior and musk staff, two of those people said.
In the first weeks of the new Trump administration, some White House officials had expressed concern about the tactics of the Musk government efficiency department (Doge), such as Reuters previously reported.
The head of Cabinet, Susie Wiles, had set to Musk to ask her to pick her up in her plans instead of surprising her team with important decisions, according to two separate sources with knowledge of the conversation they talked about the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
After that conversation, Musk had begun to keep Wiles informed about Doge’s activities daily, said one of the officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
The White House believed that Musk agreement would seek to seek the approval of the cabinet secretaries before using the Government Human Resources Agency, the Personnel Management Office (OPM), to send emails directly to federal workers, two of the officials said.
But the plan seems to have crumbled quickly. After Trump urged Musk to be more aggressive with Doge in a publication in his social site in Truth on Saturday, OPM ordered the 2.3 million civil service workers in the Nation in an email to detail their achievements at work.
The email landed shortly after Musk published on his social media site X that not responding to the request would be seen as a resignation, an ultimatum that sent shock waves through Washington.
They were not just workers and some Trump administration officials who said they were blinded. The White House was surprised again, this time in one of the most harmful and potentially consistent movements of Musk, according to the three officials.
Trump and Wiles did not sign the email, those three people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Musk, however, told a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he had asked Trump if his team could send an email to all, just saying: “What was done last week? The president said yes. Then, I did that.”
Musk and a Dogs representative did not respond to requests for comments on their communications with the White House before the email came out.
In response to the questions of ReutersThe White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement that the sources were “wrong” and that the “White House was not taken by surprise.”
“Trump signed Musk’s email idea, and Dege and the OPM gave him a notice,” he said.
He called the “obsession” of the media with Trump, Musk and Doge “pathetic” and said he showed that the media were still out of contact with US voters.
“If the media spent the same amount of time discovering waste, fraud and abuse in our federal government, since they write false stories trying to boost a gap between Elon Musk and President Trump, maybe the American people would really respect them,” Leavitt said.
Productivity email seems to have exposed the deepest failures to date between the Tesla CEO and the high -level employees of the White House since Musk and its associates began to dismantle programs and cut the workforce.
It also suggests an unprecedented degree of autonomy for Musk, the richest person in the world, in their role as “special government employee.”
After spending a quarter of one billion dollars in Trump’s electoral campaign, Musk became an important member of the transition, entering non -invited meetings and pressing for his favorite choices for cabinet positions, according to half a dozen sources close to the transition.
Since Trump assumed the position on January 20, Musk has tried to reduce the United States government in a secret wrapped operation. It is not clear exactly who uses Doge, how the group operates and what actions are taking within government agencies.
In a judicial presentation of February 17 in a case that tries to block Doge’s access to the systems of the United States Treasury Department, the White House said Musk is not the attire administrator or even a Doge employee, which describes him as an employee of the White House and Trump’s main advisor. But he is clearly Doge’s driving force, something that Trump has repeatedly said when answering questions from journalists.
Among the Employees of the White House, frustration seems to be growing towards Musk and his little and insular Doge team, many of them software engineers who have worked for Musk companies.
Trump aboard
However, Trump, he continues to keep Musk, both public and private, according to two of Trump’s comments, as well as Trump’s own public statements.
When asked Tuesday about the email that indicates federal workers to list their achievements, Trump said: “It is a voluntary thing. But it is also, if you do not answer, I suppose they fire you.”
One of the officials said that while Trump did not sign the email, “he likes to let Elon be Elon.”
Leavitt said Tuesday that Musk came up with the idea of email and worked with OPM to implement it. “And let me be very clear, the president and Elon and all his cabinet are working as a unified team,” Leavitt said.
However, the setbacks against Musk’s power are increasing.
Some agencies have already told workers to ignore email. On Tuesday, Musk gave federal workers “another opportunity” to respond to their ultimatum after the deadline of the original Monday had elapsed, which suggests some margin of maneuver. The worried cabinet chiefs have called Wiles, who led Trump’s presidential campaign, about email, said one of the officials.
The Trump administration ordered the federal agencies to prepare for more large -scale layoffs on Wednesday. Already, around 100,000 workers have taken purchases or have been fired after Doge was sent to GUT Federal Staffing and expenses.
The questions about the role of Musk and Doge are in the heart of multiple demands that seek to prevent access to government systems and cut programs. Many demands claim that Musk and Doge are violating the Constitution by exercising the type of great power that only comes from the agencies created through Congress or the appointments of the United States made confirmation by the Senate.
At least two members of the Cabinet have expressed in private frustration with Doge’s cuts because they fear losing too many employees and controlling their departments, according to a republican source that spoke directly with the two members.
One of those members of the Cabinet complained in private of the White House by the Email of Ultimatum on Saturday, said the source.
That person, together with a republican consultant with ties with the Trump administration, said they had recently spoken with a total of six members of the Congress who expressed concern about Duxt’s overreach.
“But everyone is taking their Trump signals,” said the Republican consultant. “Until he throws musk from the cliff, they won’t.”
