The latest on Trump’s presidency as Musk threatens more cuts to federal workforce

Calling the Trump administration’s email demanding federal employees say what they are working on “illegal,” the National Federation of Federal Employees advised members to forward the email to their immediate supervisors and ask for guidance.

The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal union, gave similar guidance to its members, saying workers should ask their supervisors what information can be disclosed to the Office of Personnel Management, which sent the Saturday afternoon email blast. The union said it will provide further guidance Monday.

OPM’s mass email followed a post on X by Elon Musk on Saturday, in which he said failure to respond to the email would be considered a resignation.

Elsewhere, the National Treasury Employees Union is advising members not to respond yet, while the union confers on next steps, a spokesperson told CNN. It called the email “unAmerican” in a statement on Saturday.

NFFE told members it understands that many employees cannot say what they are working on because of security issues, and that others may be unable to comply by the deadline of 11:59 pm Monday because they are on leave or special assignment. The union said federal employees have privacy rights and the request from a general OPM email address may violate those rights.

Both NFFE and AFGE said they will challenge any attempt to fire workers and will contact OPM to reverse the instruction or clarify its authority to issue such a request.

AFGE told members that Musk has “no known authority” to claim that nonresponses will be taken as terminations, and that OPM does not have the authority to give such an assignment to federal employees in this manner.

President Donald Trump mocked the controversy surrounding Elon Musk’s latest threat to cut federal employees, posting a “SpongeBob SquarePants” meme Sunday that ridiculed the situation.

“Got done last week,” the image reads, followed by a list of five bullet points: “Cried about Trump, cried about Elon, made it into the office for once, read some emails, cried about Trump and Elon some more.”

The post comes after employees began receiving emails Saturday afternoon asking them to write “approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.” In a post on social media, Musk threatened the jobs of workers who do not comply, saying “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

As CNN previously reported, some agencies have advised workers not to respond to the email yet — notably at agencies where much or all of employees’ duties may be sensitive.

Mass layoffs across the federal government, the country’s largest employer, have led to widespread confusion and disrupted critical work on everything from federal cybersecurity to life-saving medical research.

Trump’s post comes on the same day Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah asked Musk to “put a dose of compassion” into the Department of Government Efficiency’s downsizing efforts.

The Trump administration’s mass email asking federal employees what they worked on last week — and Elon Musk’s suggestion that anyone who does not respond will be dismissed — has prompted a cascade of questions and confusion for workers across government.

While some federal agencies are advising workers to hold off on responding, and unions for the employees are vowing to bring legal challenges, leaders in other parts of the government are telling their employees to comply.

Here’s what officials are telling their workers at several departments and agencies:

Department of Defense: Pentagon leadership is officially advising employees not to respond at this time to the emails, which were sent by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” acting Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Darin Selnick wrote. “When and if required, the department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week.’”

Multiple senior Defense Department officials told CNN the email thrust their weekend into chaos as they tried to determine what to tell employees about how to respond.

Social Security Administration: Social Security workers are being told to comply with the emailed request.

In an email titled “Time Sensitive: ‘Accomplishments’ Assignment,” Social Security workers were told that the Office of Personnel Management email was legitimate and that they should comply with the request to list five bullet points on what they’ve done.

Staffers were encouraged to identify their most “impactful, mission-critical work accomplishments” in the email, which was reviewed by CNN. The email noted that employees should not include any sensitive or confidential information, including non-public details.

Department of Health and Human Services: HHS employees were also told that the OPM email was legitimate and that staffers should read and respond to it by the 11:59 p.m. ET Monday deadline.

By contrast, some employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, which are part of HHS, were told to wait until Monday for more guidance on how to respond.

CNN’s Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.

Supporters of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) react after the first exit polls in the German general elections were announced on TV in Berlin on Sunday.

President Donald Trump shared congratulations on social media to the “Conservative Party in Germany” on what he described as a major election victory on Sunday.

The conservative Christian Democratic Union party tops the vote in the German elections, exit polls project, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) almost doubled its vote share and surged into second place.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump framed the result as a rejection of progressive policies on energy and immigration, drawing parallels between Germany’s political climate and that of the United States. Trump linked the outcome to his own win, suggesting that the political momentum was shifting globally in favor of conservative movements.

Friedrich Merz is projected to become Germany’s next chancellor after exit polls indicate his center-right CDU party secured the most votes in the elections, with economic challenges and immigration as key issues for voters.

Remember: Two members of Trump’s inner circle, Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance, controversially waded into German politics ahead of the elections. Vance met with AfD leader Alice Weidel and Musk appeared virtually at a campaign event for the party, which has been iced out by the country’s mainstream parties over its staunch anti-immigrant stance and other far-right views.

CNN’s Ivana Kottasová and Sophie Tanno contributed reporting to this post.

US immigration officials launched a new round of enforcement operations in the Los Angeles area Sunday, according to two people familiar with the effort.

The operations in Southern California follow recent efforts ordered by the Trump administration to arrest people unlawfully residing in places like Chicago and New York.

Video posted on social media by community activists appeared to show federal agents gathered outside one home east of downtown Los Angeles.

It is unclear how many people have been detained as part of Sunday’s operations. CNN has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment.

Sources previously told CNN that US immigration officials were planning for a wave of enforcement actions to detain and deport people in the Los Angeles area.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were expected to be assisted by agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, FBI, and US Customs and Border Protection, sources said.

Los Angeles is one of a number of Democratic-led cities in California, Colorado and Illinois that have instituted sanctuary city policies restricting cooperation with federal immigration officials’ efforts to arrest, detain or gather information on migrants.

CNN’s Lauren Mascarenhas contributed to this report.

NASA leadership is working to issue guidance on how workers should respond to this weekend’s email blast from the Office of Personnel Management, which Elon Musk has said will lead to dismissals for federal employees who do not respond.

The emails, titled “What did you do last week?” instruct workers to respond in bulleted format summarizing their recent duties by Monday at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Nicky Fox, the head of NASA’s science mission directorate (SMD), sent an email to employees on Saturday afternoon saying the email was an “opportunity to showcase the great work we do in SMD.”

“In just the next two weeks we have 4 launches and 2 lunar landings with missions that will expand our understanding of the first stages of the universe, the nature of space weather, and characterize the lunar surface in preparation for our return to the moon,” Fox’s email, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, reads.

But on Sunday morning, Fox sent a follow-up email reading, “Update. Please go ahead and prepare your bullets but do not submit to OPM until you receive further guidance from your supervisor.”

Three additional emails from NASA leaders that were obtained by CNN offer similar guidance, asking workers to wait until Monday before taking action.

One NASA employee noted that they did not receive any communication. But the source highlighted that they were given guidance a few weeks ago not to check or send work email when not on duty in response to the return-to-office executive order.

When reached for comment on Sunday, a NASA spokesperson said, “we are anticipating sending some additional guidance to our workforce tomorrow.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters after meeting with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson at the Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 7.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel could resume “intense warfare” in Gaza “at any moment,” at a precarious time for the ceasefire deal with Hamas.

His comments come a day after Israel delayed the release of hundreds of Palestinians prisoners and detainees who were set to be freed after Hamas returned six hostages. Israel has taken issue with the use of exchanges as propaganda opportunities for the militant group.

During his speech, Netanyahu repeatedly thanked US President Donald Trump for his support, saying it played a role in securing the release of Israeli hostages, and alluded to post-war plans for the Palestinian enclave.

“Trump sees eye to eye with us. We support his plan to allow freedom of movement from Gaza and create a different Gaza,” the prime minister said.

Earlier this month, Trump said that Palestinians should be permanently relocated from Gaza so the US could take control of the territory and turn it into a new “Riviera,” which prompted swift backlash across the Middle East and Europe.

Coming up this week: Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy for the Middle East, will return to the region in the coming days for talks on maintaining the fragile ceasefire-for-hostages deal.

Witkoff told CNN on Sunday that he still expects the agreement to enter a second phase, despite questions about its future. Talks to begin the second phase, which would see the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of all living hostages held by Hamas, were supposed to begin more than two weeks ago.

Republican Rep. Jim Jordan on Sunday dismissed criticism over the Department of Government Efficiency’s mass layoffs of federal workers, arguing that while “some mistakes” were made, the pushback to the firings has been “ridiculous.”

Appearing on Fox News, Jordan referred to a Washington Post report on how the layoffs have impacted national parks, and that the only locksmith at Yosemite National Park who knew how to rescue visitors from locked restrooms was fired.

He also insisted House Republicans aren’t looking to make cuts to Medicaid, saying he doesn’t consider it a cut to implement “common sense” work requirements in order to receive the benefit.

Broader impact of firings: The layoffs at federal agencies have had severe impacts far beyond national parks.

The Trump administration recently scrambled amid a flood of criticism to claw back employees they fired without realizing they manage the country’s nuclear weapons, sources told CNN. Dozens have been fired at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency despite hacking threats, and officials warn that a purge of federal health agencies could have “deadly consequences.”

Republican senator strikes a different tone: GOP Sen. John Curtis of Utah asked Elon Musk to “put a dose of compassion” into DOGE’s downsizing efforts during an interview Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“These are real people. These are real lives,” Curtis said. “It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut, and you have to be cruel to do it, as well. We can do both.”

This post has been updated with Sen. John Curtis’ remarks.

CNN’s Keely Aouga, Zachary Cohen, Ella Nilsen, Rene Marsh, Meg Tirrell and Sunlen Serfaty contributed to this report.

Elon Musk sent his latest shockwave through the federal workforce on Saturday when he announced that all employees would be receiving emails asking them to explain what work they did last week — and that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

The email blast caused fear and confusion for workers across the country.

One federal worker told CNN they find the demand “insulting” and “absolutely mind-blowing,” especially considering their activity at work is already tracked.

Another federal staffer told CNN they feel compelled to reply.

“Personally, I’m afraid to not respond by the deadline based on Elon’s tweets that nonresponse would be considered a resignation,” said the worker, who noted that their friends at another agency “are on the fence on whether to respond with actual accomplishments or to respond with bullets of the oath we took to the Constitution.”

The head of a top union representing federal workers lambasted Musk’s ultimatum, saying the group would fight any “unlawful terminations.”

The head of the National Treasury Employees Union also swiftly criticized the move, calling it “completely unAmerican” in a statement vowing to defend civil servants.

If you’re just catching up on the email ultimatum, here’s what to know.

A woman rides a bicycle past a destroyed school building following a recent shelling in a village in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on January 30.

President Donald Trump will sit with two key European leaders at the White House in the coming days after a week that saw him reverse US policy on Russia’s war in Ukraine, falsely accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of starting the conflict and echoing other Moscow talking points.

Trump and his administration have been engaged with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the potential terms of a deal to end the fighting, while also negotiating with Kyiv on a pact that would grant US access to 50% of Ukraine’s mineral revenues as back-payment for American assistance.

Here’s what top Trump officials and US lawmakers are saying about the latest developments:

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth: The defense secretary vowed Sunday to be tough with Moscow, saying, “you’ve got to stare down the Russians” to negotiate the end of the war — but he declined to expressly blame Russia for its invasion.

“The reality is, the president is focused on one thing and one thing only, and that’s stopping the killing and the destruction across Ukraine,” Hegseth said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

Hegseth vowed to have “earnest conversations about difficult things” with both Russia and Ukraine. But he demurred when pressed on who bears responsibility for starting the conflict.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: The treasury secretary said Trump’s Ukrainian mineral proposal is intended to demonstrate to Russia long-term economic ties between Washington and Kyiv.

Voicing optimism the deal would be signed this week, Bessent said Moscow had already expressed its displeasure at such an arrangement. “The Russians hate this deal,” he said, dubbing it an “economic security guarantee” that would ensure it’s in the US’ best interest to protect the Ukrainian economy.

GOP Rep. Don Bacon: The Republican, who represents a Nebraska swing district, told CNN he was angered by Trump blaming Ukraine for starting the war, calling it “victim blaming.”

Democratic Rep. Jim Himes: The Connecticut lawmaker and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee said he did not agree with the Trump administration’s approach surrounding the minerals deal, telling Fox News, “It just looks like an episode of ‘The Sopranos.’”

Himes said Trump “is standing with the bad guy” and demanding concessions from an imperiled Ukraine, like “some mafia thing.” He also suggested Chinese President Xi Jinping is looking at the latest developments as a signal for a potential future conflict with Taiwan.

GOP Rep. Mike Lawler: The New York congressman, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he “did not agree with the president’s rhetoric” about Zelensky and emphasized the need for unity between the US and Ukraine in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”

“Vladimir Putin is a vile dictator and thug, and he is clearly responsible for the war in Ukraine,” Lawler said. “Russia, China and Iran have been working in a coordinated effort to undermine and destabilize the United States, Europe, Israel and the free world. They are not our allies or our friends, and we must be clear-eyed about that.”

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact group at NATO headquarters in Brussels, on February 12.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown and other senior officers in a major shake-up of senior military leadership last week.

“The president deserves to pick his key national security and military advisory team. There are lots of presidents who’ve made changes,” Hegseth said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Trump fired Brown on Friday night, replacing him with retired Air Force Lt. Gen. John Dan “Razin” Caine. Shortly after, Hegseth dismissed the chief of the US Navy and the vice chief of the Air Force.

Hegseth, addressing Trump’s decision to overhaul top military positions, reiterated the administration’s commitment to aligning leadership with its national security vision.

“This is a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take,” Hegseth said.

“I have a lot of respect for C.Q. Brown; I got to know him over the course of a month. He’s an honorable man, not the right man for the moment,” he added.

GOP congressman objects to Brown’s firing: Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from a Nebraska swing district, objected to Trump’s firing of Brown.

“I was a colonel and a one-star with C.Q. Brown. He did not deserve to be fired,” Bacon, who served in combat in the Air Force, told CNN. “The military is resilient. I’m just worried about the lack of decency and class.”

CNN’s Manu Raju contributed reporting to this post.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gives a press conference in Kyiv on February 19.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that he was “ready” to resign as leader if it meant peace in his country, suggesting he could swap stepping down for NATO membership.

Some background: The Ukrainian president previously said his country’s army will need to double in size if NATO denies it membership to the alliance. Earlier this month, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Kyiv joining NATO — a long-held goal — was unrealistic.

Zelensky’s comments follow an escalating spat between the Ukrainian president and Donald Trump after the US president falsely accused Ukraine of starting the conflict and called Zelensky a “dictator.”

House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a press conference on overreach by President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DODGE) at the US Capitol on February 6, in Washington, DC.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday refused to say whether he has confidence in New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ ability to lead amid allegations of a quid pro quo deal with the Trump administration.

“Yes or no, do you have confidence in Mayor Adams to lead New York City?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Jeffries on “State of the Union.”

Adams is facing allegations that he’s cooperating with the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts in exchange for the Justice Department to drop federal corruption charges against him. The Democratic mayor has denied any quid pro quo with the administration.

Pressed on Adams, Jeffries — who has previously called the situation “disturbing” — declined to comment on the charges against the New York City mayor and the federal case.

Some background: A federal judge vacated the upcoming trial date for Adams but declined to immediately dismiss the charges all together. Judge Dale Ho, instead, is appointing conservative attorney Paul Clement to present arguments challenging the Justice Department’s decision to drop charges against Adams.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, announced Thursday that she will not use her executive powers to remove Adams from office, at least for now, instead opting to propose a set of guardrails that aim to severely limit his independence.

US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff attends interview after meeting with Russian officials at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 18.

Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, will return to the region this week for continued talks on maintaining the fragile ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza.

Witkoff told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that he still expected the agreement to enter a second phase, despite questions about its future, after what he described as an extension of Phase 1. Talks to begin the second phase, which would see the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of all living hostages held by Hamas, were supposed to begin more than two weeks ago.

Witkoff said he believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “well-motivated” to see the arrangement continue, despite pressure from the leader’s right-wing government to abandon the deal and resume the war.

Witkoff stopped short of saying whether Hamas needed to be eliminated entirely.

“I would say at this point for sure, for sure, they can’t be any part of … governance in Gaza,” he said. “As to existing, I’d leave that that detail to the prime minister.”

Some context: Israel has delayed an expected release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for returned Israeli hostages “until further notice,” the Palestinian Prisoners Society said early Sunday.

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office confirmed the postponement, demanding guarantees that future hostage releases will take place without “humiliating ceremonies.”

Hamas has used recent hostage releases as opportunities for anti-Israel propaganda.

President Donald Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff predicted Sunday that Ukraine would agree to a mineral rights deal with the US this week after initially balking at its terms, and credited Trump’s outbursts of anger toward his Ukrainian counterpart as contributing to the agreement being signed.

In an interview with Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” Witkoff also backed Trump’s assertions that Russia had been provoked into starting the war, lending voice to Moscow’s own explanations for its illegal invasion that began three years ago.

“The war didn’t need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn’t necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians,” he said.

Witkoff, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month as part of efforts to release a detained American, said he was confident the Russians were serious about striking a peace deal in the near-term — though he didn’t specify what concessions Moscow would make to end the war.

Some background: The mineral deal, which was first presented to Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on a visit to Kyiv, would grant US access to 50% of Ukraine’s mineral revenues as back-payment for American assistance following Russia’s invasion. It did not contain any future security guarantees, nor commitments for continued US assistance.

Zelensky refused to sign the agreement when Bessent presented it to him, infuriating Trump and prompting him to lash out online.

But the talks have been ongoing, and Witkoff suggested Trump’s public anger had led to a change of heart in Zelensky. “I expect to see a deal signed this week,” Witkoff said.

While the Trump administration continues to project confidence, a source familiar with the negotiations told CNN on Saturday that the current draft deal was “not the one President Zelensky would accept.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal says the preservation of the filibuster has given Democrats an “instrument to preserve democracy,” despite his party pushing hard to eliminate the potent stalling technique when they were in the majority and controlled the White House just four years ago.

To break a filibuster, there must be 60 votes, giving Democrats leverage in the 53-47 GOP-controlled Senate. But for years when they were in the majority, Democrats had been pushing to lower the threshold to 51 votes, which would dramatically weaken the power of the minority party.

Now, Blumenthal and Democrats are relying on the filibuster to block much of Trump’s most aggressive ambitions, including a federal takeover of the District of Columbia.

Blumenthal said even though he supported abolishing the 60-vote threshold on legislation, he is “glad” about the outcome of the effort failing.

“For now, it’s an instrument — a tool that we need to use. And in the long run, probably reform will dictate that the filibuster be eliminated. But to preserve democracy, ironically, we need to use an anti-democratic tool. And that’s the kind of agility and nimbleness that we need against the onslaught that we’re seeing on civil liberties,” he said.

President Donald Trump’s false claims that Ukraine started the war with Russia have provoked outrage among American volunteers fighting with the Ukrainian army.

The US military has not supported Ukraine with boots on the ground, but many American veterans have signed up to join the fight since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

CNN contacted several US soldiers on the front line to get their reaction. Some refused to talk, saying they didn’t want to exacerbate an already difficult situation. Others were afraid of potential retribution from the US. Those who spoke to CNN were unanimous in their disagreement with Trump.

In an audio message, Whitefish, who is originally from Colorado, said he understands the “America First” perspective, but that Trump was going to put Ukraine “in a position that it really cannot defend itself.”

He added that Trump’s comments spit in the face of American soldiers who have died defending Ukraine in the war — and could have devastating consequences for the rest of Europe if the conflict is allowed to expand.

Another American volunteer, who has fought in Ukraine since 2022 and asked to remain anonymous, said he applauded the effort to stop the killing, but that Trump underestimated Russia.

“I am certainly tired of my friends dying,” he said in a message to CNN. “But the prime problem is still there — you, me, Trump, Congress, cannot control the Russian Army. So sure, you might stop the Ukrainians, but then the Russians won’t stop.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski heads to the Senate Chamber to vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act on January 22, in Washington, DC.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski lambasted the Trump administration’s blanket firings across the federal government, saying they have “really been detrimental” and disrespected hard-working employees.

Speaking with CNN’s Manu Raju, Murkowski, whose state of Alaska has some of the largest national parks in the country, questioned the legality of the moves.

“There’s concern about being able to be ready for the wildland fires that we experience earlier and earlier every year,” Murkowski said. “The National Park Service, the abrupt terminations that we have seen for those has really been detrimental.”

Murkowski said she was hearing from concerned constituents. She also criticized the treatment of the employees.

When asked if she thought the Trump administration may being breaking the law, Murkowski said “it is a concern.”

Musk’s ultimatum: Murkowski, who is rare among Republicans in her past willingness to publicly break with President Donald Trump, made her latest comments as federal employees receive mass emails asking them to explain what work they did last week.

Elon Musk, who runs Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, said on social media that failure to respond to the emails “will be taken as a resignation,” further roiling the beleaguered federal workforce.

In President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s latest move targeting the federal workforce, employees began receiving emails Saturday afternoon asking them to explain what work they did last week, as Musk announced that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

The email from the Office of Personnel Management’s new HR address reads: “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”

The email blast came on the heels of a social media post by Musk threatening the jobs of workers who do not comply.

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk posted Saturday on X, hours after Trump suggested he be more “aggressive.”

However, the email itself does not state that failure to answer will be taken as resignation. It says the deadline for submission is Monday at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Would that be legal? Musk can’t legally force federal employees to resign, and attempting to do so would amount to an involuntary termination, Michael Fallings, a federal employment law expert, told CNN. If workers were affected, they could file a claim challenging the action.

Fallings said the demand is an “unreasonable and unnecessary request,” especially coming over the weekend and containing an arbitrary deadline.

Employees should discuss the email with their managers and, if applicable, their union officials before responding, Fallings said.

How agencies are responding: Some agencies have also advised workers not yet to respond to the email — notably at agencies where much or all of employees’ duties may be sensitive.

FBI Director Kash Patel told bureau employees Saturday not to immediately respond. Employees of the National Security Agency were also notified Saturday that they should hold off on responding until they receive further guidance from the Department of Defense, a source said.

Outrage from unions: The head of a top union representing federal workers lambasted Musk’s ultimatum, telling CNN in a statement that it reflects the Trump administration’s “utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people.”

Kelley said his union plans to take legal action.

Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, called the email “completely unAmerican.”

Read more about Musk’s latest move here.

First Lady Melania Trump at the Commander-in-Chief Ball on January 20, in Washington, DC.

After a four-week absence from Washington, first lady Melania Trump returned to the White House on Saturday for an annual dinner and reception with the nation’s governors.

“She worked very hard on making sure that everything was beautiful. And she’s very good at that,” President Donald Trump said in brief remarks to governors in the candlelit East Room, his wife seated nearby at a table filled with overflowing vases of white hydrangeas and tulips.

While Melania Trump may be preparing the White House for visitors — she announced in a statement last week that tours of the historic home are reopening to the public — the first lady apparently has had less interest in spending time there.

Since her husband took the oath of office on January 20, she has not spent significant time at the White House, according to sources with direct knowledge of her schedule. Melania Trump was an active presence during the first days of the president’s second term, but after joining her husband for a January 24 trip to natural disaster-ravaged North Carolina and California, hadn’t returned to Washington until Saturday.

The first lady was expected to spend a majority of her time between New York, where son Barron is attending college, and Florida, CNN reported during the presidential transition. Sources familiar with her thinking insisted at the time that she would still be present for major events, including Saturday’s ball, and would have her own platform and priorities as first lady.

But the past month suggests her time in Washington may be even more limited than expected, signaling a remarkable, if unsurprising, break in precedent for a first family.

A spokesperson for the office of the first lady declined to comment on her whereabouts.

Read more about the first lady’s first month here.