{"id":127629,"date":"2025-02-23T21:04:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-23T21:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-mocks-pushback-over-musks-demand-to-federal-workers-as-gabbard-tells-intelligence-staff-not-to-respond-live-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-02-23T21:04:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T21:04:46","slug":"trump-mocks-pushback-over-musks-demand-to-federal-workers-as-gabbard-tells-intelligence-staff-not-to-respond-live-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-mocks-pushback-over-musks-demand-to-federal-workers-as-gabbard-tells-intelligence-staff-not-to-respond-live-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump mocks pushback over Musk\u2019s demand to federal workers as Gabbard tells intelligence staff not to respond: Live – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Several agency leaders, including Trump allies, told employees to ignore Musk\u2019s latest request
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<\/a>Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s ultimatum to federal workers asking them to justify their work or risk losing their jobs is being met with pushback from agency and department heads \u2013 even those most loyal to President Donald Trump<\/a>.
FBI<\/a> Director Kash Patel<\/a> and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, both Trump allies, instructed workers to ignore Musk\u2019s request.<\/a>
Hundreds of thousands of employees received an email from Musk requesting they respond with five things they did<\/a> in the prior week by Monday evening. But many current and former lawmakers have raised questions about the reasonableness and legality of the request.
Officials in the State Department also told employees to disregard the email saying<\/a>, \u201cNo employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their department chain of command\u201d.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump mocked those who were criticizing Musk\u2019s email by posting a meme on Truth Social<\/a> that shows the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants making a list similar to the one Musk requested that includes, \u201ccried about Trump\u201d and \u201cread some emails\u201d.
Musk originally posted. the meme on his X account.
In an all-caps Truth Social message, Trump congratulated the conservative party in Germany for their predicted victory, claiming it was a \u201cgreat day for Germany and for the United States\u201d under his leadership.
Trump claimed the people of Germany \u201cgot tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration\u201d
\u201cTHIS IS A GREAT DAY FOR GERMANY, AND FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF A GENTLEMAN NAMED DONALD J. TRUMP.\u201d
Trump did not name the party, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, in his post.
While CDU is a conservative party in Germany, Elon Musk and endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany party before the election. Vice President JD Vance also met with an AfD co-leader.
AfD made huge gains in the election, an indication of strong support for a far-right party since World War II.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris used her first public speech since leaving the White House to slam President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, leader of the Department of Government Efficiency.
\u201cThis chapter will be written, not simply by whoever occupies the Oval Office, nor by the wealthiest among us,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThe American story will be written by you, written by us, by We the People.\u201d
Harris was honored Saturday evening with the Chairman\u2019s Award at the 56th NAACP Image Awards<\/a>. The award honors those who \u201cexcel in public service and leverage their unique platforms to ignite and drive meaningful change.\u201d
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard became the latest Trump administration official to order employees not to follow Elon Musk\u2019s orders to email their work accomplishments in the past week.
Joining FBI Director Kash Patel and leaders in the State Department, Gabbard asked intelligence community officers to not answer the email, citing sensitivity concerns around the work.
\u201cGiven the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, IC employees should not respond to the OPM email,\u201d Gabbard wrote in an email obtained by the New York Times.<\/em>
A gathering of anti-Trump conservatives in Washington DC was evacuated on Sunday after receiving what officials with the organization called a \u201ccredible bomb threat\u201d they said was sent in by an account claiming to represent Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys.
Video of attendees being evacuated was posted to Twitter along with a statement from summit organizers. An initial version of the statement identified Tarrio \u2014 who\u2019d been at the summit on Saturday \u201charassing\u201d families of officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, per organizers \u2014 as having sent in the threat.
Read more here<\/strong>
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie compared the government\u2019s current management to that of a \u201cclown car\u201d and accused Elon Musk of overreaching his authority.
Christie, a former Trump ally who has broken away from the president in recent years, said Musk is likely overstepping his legal authority in asking government employees to explain their work or resign.
Speaking with ABC\u2019s This Week <\/em>on Sunday, Christie called Musk\u2019s effort a \u201ccomplete overstep.\u201d
Christie said every job \u201cvaries from week to week\u201d so it would be unfair to judge a person\u2019s work from one week.
He also criticized Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team, claiming they were poorly managing the government. He used FBI Director Kash Patel\u2019s recent email asking federal workers to ignore Musk\u2019s directive as an example.
\u201cThis type of idea, of Musk coming in there with the chainsaw he was famously brandishing at a political event in Washington D.C. this week, it\u2019s a lot more complicated than that. Running government is a lot more complicated than that and hopefully they get their act together at some point,\u201d Christie said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blamed Democrats for \u201cmischaracterizing\u201d the firing spree carried out by President Donald Trump at the Pentagon and said on Sunday that the military\u2019s top brass was not at risk of political reprisals.
Steve Witkoff, the special envoy to the Middle East, said on Sunday that Russia should not be totally blamed for invading Ukraine because they were \u201cprovoked\u201d by Ukraine\u2019s desire to join NATO.
Witkoff took the position that President Donald Trump has recently taken, claiming, “The war didn’t need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians.\u201d
\u201cThere were all kinds of conversations back then about Ukraine joining NATO. The president has spoken about this. That didn’t need to happen. It basically became a threat to the Russians,\u201d Witkoff said on CNN\u2019s State of the Union<\/em> on Sunday.
\u201cThose are real facts\u201d
National Security Adviser Mike Waltz refused to agree that Russia was the aggressor in the conflict with Ukraine, during an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo.
\u201cCan you acknowledge that Russia is the aggressor here?\u201d
\u201cWell, you know what, who would you rather have going toe-to-toe with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Xi or anyone else? Joe Biden or Donald Trump?\u201d Waltz answered.
Waltz insinuated Russia only invaded Ukraine when George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Biden were presidents but that it would not under Trump because of his \u201cstrength\u201d.
Last week, Trump falsely asserted Ukraine had started the war and called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a \u201cdictator\u201d
Newly-confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel is expected to be named the acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officials told ABC News.
Patel, who was sworn in as FBI director on Friday, could take on the new position as early as next week, a Justice Department official told the news outlet.
The Trump loyalist has never been an ATF agent.
ATF is a law enforcement agency within the Department of Justice that prevents and investigates federal offenses involving firearms, explosives, acts of arson, bombings and illegal tracking of alcohol and tobacco products among other things.
The Independent<\/em> has asked the White House for comment.
Markywayne Mullin, a Republican Senator for Oklahoma, defended President Donald Trump\u2019s claim about running for a third term, saying it was \u201ca joke\u201d and people need to take it as a joke.
\u201cFirst of all, he joked,\u201d Mullin said when asked if he would support changing the Constitution to allow Trump to do so on Meet the Press <\/em>on Sunday.
\u201cAnd so I think we need to take that as a joke, not being literal,\u201d he added.
He pushed back on claims that Trump was being \u201cdeadly serious\u201d about running for a third term saying, \u201cpeople need to take it as a joke.\u201d
Mullin added that he would only change the Constitution if Americans wanted to ratify the Constitution to allow Trump to run for a third term.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inSeveral agency leaders, including Trump allies, told employees to ignore Musk\u2019s latest requestFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":127630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}