Trump and Musk approached the threats of email termination, but none clarified the confusion

After days of confusion for emails asking government workers to detail what they had done during the previous week, President Donald Trump did not clarify things when asked about them at their cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Asked by Mary Bruce of ABC News if the 1 million workers who did not respond to the termination of the email risk, Trump said: “I would not say we are delighted. They have not responded. Now, maybe they do not exist. Maybe we are paying people who do not exist,” he said. “But those people are in the bubble … They will disappear.”

But despite Trump’s statement, there is still a mixed orientation about how employees should respond.

Millions of workers stayed in Limbo after Musk published on Saturday X that could be dismissed if they did not respond to a “What did you do last week?” Email of the Personnel Management Office. Shortly after the email was sent, some agency leaders, particularly those who work with confidential and confidential information, told their employees not to respond. Others warned against responding to the request without guidance.

OPM on Monday afternoon offered guidance saying that an answer was not mandatory and trusting the orientation of individual agencies. Then, Musk offered another threat in a position on Monday night, saying that employees were given “another opportunity” and that “not responding for the second time will result in the termination” and will establish a deadline on Tuesday night.

To add to confusion, Musk said he intended to send another email without saying when. Asked by Bruce if an answer to the next email, Trump did not respond directly, saying: “We are trying to find out, do they exist? Who are they? And it is possible that many of those people really be fired.”

It is not clear if Musk and his government efficiency department have some power to terminate employees through the email application. The previous emails sent from OPM, in essence, the Department of Human Relations of the Government, did not mention any termination mention: those threats were only issued as Musk on its X platform.

Those who do not follow Musk on social networks may not have been aware of threats.

The American Federation of Government Employees (ANGE), the largest union of federal workers, described the illegal email and has threatened legal actions.

Wednesday’s comments occurred after a confusing weekend for government workers.

The senior White House officials, who had not been completely informed about the plan, were initially offended, multiple sources told ABC News.

Before OPM weighed on Monday afternoon, some agencies, such as health and human services, the first employees told him that they responded hours later before issuing specific guidelines about what employees could or may not publish in their answers.

The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Tuesday that the measure was to ensure that federal employees were really working on their work and declined to comment if it was a tactic to eliminate more federal jobs.

The White House said Trump sent Musk an email with five things he had done, but they were generic conversation points.

Musk told journalists on Wednesday that email was his idea after the president told him that “it was more aggressive” with his cuts.

“I said: ‘Can we send an email to all just say what was done last week?’ The president said: ‘Yes’.

Musk used similar tactics when he bought Twitter, which renamed X, causing employees to send weekly reports that detail projects, achievements and contributions. Responding to a publication on Saturday pointing to simiarities, Musk wrote: “It works.”

When Bruce asked him if he had an objective number of employees he wanted to cut, Musk did not give a specific answer.

“We want to keep everyone who is doing a job that is essential and doing that job well, but if the work is not essential or not doing the job well, they should not obviously should,” he said.