DOGE denied: Trump admin tells workers replying to Musk demand 'voluntary'

DOGE denied: Trump admin tells workers replying to Musk demand 'voluntary'

WASHINGTON − The federal Office of Personnel Management notified workers they could ignore Elon Musk's latest DOGE directive, a reversal for the billionaire adviser to President Donald Trump who sought to remove workers who didn't reply.

The Department of Government Efficiency had sent a blast email Saturday to an estimated 2 million workers via the Office of Personnel Management with the subject line, "What did you do last week?" The email instructed all federal workers to share "approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished."

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

More: Federal agency investigating Elon Musk's Tesla hit with DOGE layoffs

The original email gave workers a deadline of midnight Monday to reply. But an updated email Monday said the response is "voluntary."