IANS New York

US domestic intelligence head Kash Patel and other top government officials in sensitive areas are defying Elon Musk, telling employees to ignore the billionaire businessman's order to send five bullet-pointed responses about their work the previous week or be fired. Musk set a Monday deadline for the more than 2.5 million federal employees to reply or lose their jobs.

The defiance of investigative, intelligence, defence, and diplomacy officials tests Musk's authority that flows directly from President Donald Trump, who has given him a mission to cut costs and improve efficiency at the federal government. If Trump backs Musk, that could lead to a widespread showdown across areas vital to national security.

Musk and Trump are appealing to the scepticism of most citizens towards the working of the bureaucracy and antipathy towards government employees. Musk posted on X, "The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!"

Patel, who became the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) last week, sent a memo to the employees of his agency asking them not to respond to Musk's demand. National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard wrote a similar note to the Intelligence Community made up of agencies under her supervision.

She pointed out that the nature of their work is "inherently sensitive and classified." The National Security Agency and the Defence, Homeland Security, and State departments have also instructed their staff to ignore the directive from Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency. (DOGE).