More than two million federal employees received the ultimatum by mail on Saturday, which generated the rejection of several federal agencies. Given this, the Personnel Administration Office (OPM) reported that the workers were not obliged to respond to Doge’s message.
Chaos was increasing when Trump supported Musk’s measures, whom the president has commissioned the task of making the government more efficient. “What he is doing is: ‘Are you really working?’ And then, if you do not respond, like you are semi -demidized or fired, because many people are not responding because they don’t even exist, ”he said.
After the president’s statements, the OPM addressed the workers again, reiterating the Musk application and the deadline, although it is made clear that agency chiefs can “exclude the staff from this expectation to their discretion.”
Musk took advantage of the stir to launch an image and an ironic message on his social networks, insinuating that asking for the activities carried out last week had hurt workers, which, he says, are part of the “Most entreprenered bureaucracy in the world”.
Against Musk
After Musk’s emails, some government agencies refused to comply with the order. The Department of Human Health and Services (HHS) told its workers that “HHS does not expect its employees to respond to the OPM, and their employment in the agency will not be affected if you decide not to respond.”
Even some institutions closer to the President as the State Department, the FBI, the Pentagon or the Department of Security, among others, informed their workers that they did not have to answer the mail, arguing that those responsible for assessing the performance of the employees They are the bosses of the agencies.
The same Musk department is divided. More than 20 employees renounced Doge on Tuesday, noting that they will not use their experience to “dismantle indispensable public services.”
“We swore to serve the American people and keep our oath to the Constitution throughout the presidential administrations”they wrote 21 members of the Doge staff in a letter sent to the Chief of Cabinet of the White House, Susan Wiles, which was disseminated by the US media.
These employees warned that the new workers recruited by Musk did not have skills for that office and that they were rather political ideologues.
Elon Musk leads the government efficiency department and is the main advisor of President Trump. (Photo by Angela Weiss / AFP)
Jobless
One of the greatest fears of federal workers is that their offices be closed, as happened with the US agency for international development (USAID).
In other cases, some employees have received emails for temporary administrative casualties. “I learned by mail. I called my supervisors and they told me they didn’t know this was going to happen. We are all in shock “explained to the EFE agency a worker of the Food and Medicines Administration (FDA) that was notified that he would be “administrative leave until March 14”, but asked him to return “the whole team” and blocked access to systems.
Faced with this dismissal strategy, some unions, companies, veterans and environmental organizations have submitted demands before justice, arguing that Musk had violated the law by threatening mass dismissals. Others went out to demonstrate in Washington, Boston and other cities in the country.
The “restructuring” of the State
The fundamental reason for mass layoffs is that Trump wants a smaller state. “The cuts are born in the political base of President Trump, who is part of the fiscal conservative line. They, together with Musk, support the idea of having a small, not interventionist government ”points to El Comercio the POLIDAGE MARÍA PUERTA RIERA, American government professor at Valencia College in Orlando.
The expert also explains that this strategy is part of the Trump Government Plan to carry out the tax reform, without reducing taxes, which she promised in her presidential campaign. However, Puerta Riera considers that there would be an opposite effect, since the American industry that supplies the agencies, generating that the public debt increases by three or four trillion dollars would be weakened.
For the international analyst Francisco Belaúnde, the mass cuts posed problems and then hire again.
People protest against the decision of the administration of US President Donald Trump to virtually closed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the United States Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 5, 2025. Photo : DREW ANGERER / AFP
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“In addition to applying the Twitter strategy, he starts from the idea that the State is infiltrated by left -wing people and that costs must be cut to make a smaller and efficient state apparatus. Although in many cases people are saying without respecting the law “points out.
Puerta Riera adds that the fact that Doge has sent the mail on a Saturday night, when workers are disconnected from their work environment, “It is an extremely irregular event”he declares.
“In many years it has not happened that many people have been forced to give up massively”Belaúnde adds.
As for Trump’s support for Musk, experts agree that Doge has assured that he has found “fraud for hundreds of billions of dollars”, a way of suggesting that these amounts are being aimed at workers’ ghosts ‘.
So that there are no doubt about his support for the billionaire, Trump invited Musk to the first cabinet meeting at the White House.
