Five federal agencies just gave Elon Musk the finger

Dear Palmer Report readers, it’s been a tough year but the fight is more important than ever. For that reason I’ve launched the Palmer Report 2025 Operating Expenses Fund. If we can fully fund this, it’ll bridge the gap and ensure that Palmer Report can keep fighting now and into a crucial 2026. I’m asking you to contribute $25 or $50 to our GoFundMe Page or our PayPal Page.

Elon Musk sent an email to all two million federal government employees, demanding they provide bullet points of the work they did last week, and vowing to fire them if they don’t respond to the email. It’s a simplistic gambit to say the least. And now it’s already clear that it’s not going to work the way Musk wants.

Five different federal agencies — the State Department, FBI, NSA, Department of Defense, and Homeland Security – have all instructed their employees to ignore Musk’s email, per the Atlantic. Keep in mind that all of these agencies are being run by Trump‘s own recently confirmed nominees.

This means that Trump‘s own appointed people are now officially defying an “order” from Elon Musk. It’s not clear how this power struggle will play out because Donald Trump is completely asleep at the wheel. When your top underlings are feuding with each other like this, you either have to force them to play nice with each other, or get rid of some of them. But Trump, who barely knows what’s going on, won’t do either.