Elon Musk warned Monday that government employees who have not yet returned to working from their offices full time will be placed on administrative leave, a fresh escalation of his effort from within the Trump administration to tighten the screws on the federal bureaucracy.
Musk’s threat follows an executive order from President Donald Trump last month ending the widespread allowance of work-from-home and ordering federal employees back to their offices.
“Those who ignored President Trump’s executive order to return to work have now received over a month’s warning,” Musk posted to X, replying to a Fox News clip from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). “Starting this week, those who still fail to return to office will be placed on administrative leave.”
Forcing federal workers back to the office was one of many day one executive orders signed by Trump. The return to in-person work order requires department heads to “as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.”
By announcing that workers will be placed on leave this week, Musk, the de-facto leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, is again placing himself in between workers and their normal chain of command.
Over the weekend, Musk’s team created mass confusion across agencies by sending an email asking workers “What did you do last week?” and requesting five bullet points of accomplishments. Immediately, a power struggle emerged, with Trump loyalists at departments across the government instructing their employees not to reply.
FBI Director Kash Patel instructed agency staff to “please pause any responses,” and an email to State Department employees made clear that “no employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command.”
Those directions were in direct conflict with Musk, who said that failure to reply would be “taken as a resignation.”
Despite frustration and backlash from the agencies, many Republicans in Congress supported the email.
“I don’t think this is a request that is that difficult,” Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, though he encouraged “a little compassion and, quite frankly, dignity, in this as well.”
Musk has already exerted immense influence over the federal government as thousands of government workers are being placed on leave or fired, though some efforts are being held up in court. On Friday, Trump administration officials told POLITICO that the break-neck pace may slow down following criticism over the speed and scope of the changes.
Trump himself continues to advocate for Musk’s work, and said over the weekend he hopes Musk will work even faster.
“ELON IS DOING A GREAT JOB, BUT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM GET MORE AGGRESSIVE,” he posted to Truth Social. “REMEMBER, WE HAVE A COUNTRY TO SAVE, BUT ULTIMATELY, TO MAKE GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE. MAGA!”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report misstated the network to which Sen. John Curtis gave an interview on Sunday. He appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
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