BALTIMORE — Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek today facing a deadline from President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.
Musk’s unusual demand has faced resistance from several key U.S. agencies led by the president’s loyalists — including the FBI, State Department, Homeland Security and the Pentagon — which instructed their employees over the weekend not to comply. Lawmakers in both parties said that Musk’s mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue.
Musk, the billionaire tasked with slashing federal government spending, took to the stage at a conservative conference outside Washington on Thursday with a gift from Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei: a chainsaw.
“This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy,” said Musk, holding the gleaming power tool aloft at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.
Musk is leading sweeping cuts under U.S. President Donald Trump that have targeted bank regulators, forest workers, rocket scientists and tens of thousands of other government employees.
On Thursday, 6,000 employees at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service were told they would be fired, a person familiar with the matter said.
Musk, the CEO of automaker Tesla and the world’s richest man, has enthusiastically promoted Milei’s speeches.
Before Milei became Argentina’s president in late 2023, he would often brandish a chainsaw at campaign rallies as a symbol of his drive to cut the size of government.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and REUTERS
Reporting by Nicolas Misculin; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Edwina Gibbs
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles
