President Donald Trump and his White House have made it clear where they stand in the debate over Elon Musk’s weekend demand that federal workers list their accomplishments at work or face losing their jobs: firmly behind the Department of Government Efficiency‘s adviser.

Musk’s demand that federal employees report their accomplishments last week resulted in widespread confusion, splitting Trump’s Cabinet and forcing its members to stake out whether they would have their employees comply with the entrepreneur’s mass email. Musk has spurred divisions in the Republican Party before, including on the H-1B visa debate and in a public spat with Steve Bannon.

However, the Trump administration is vigorously defending the tech billionaire’s efforts to purge the federal workforce in the aftermath.

“I can name five things, five bullets in about five minutes of me coming into the office every day. If you struggle to do that for a week … there’s no excuse for that,” said Alina Habba, senior counselor to the president, who defended the Musk email to reporters at the White House Tuesday morning.

The president himself reiterated Musk’s warning Monday afternoon at the Oval Office: “If you don’t answer, you’re sort of semi-fired or you’re fired.”

“Everyone is working together as one unified team at the direction of President Trump. Any notion to the contrary is completely false,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement to the Washington Examiner.

At a Tuesday press briefing, Leavitt also pointed to Trump’s continued support of Musk.

“The president sent out a truth last weekend to Elon Musk saying he loves everything Elon is doing, and he wants him to be even more aggressive because DOGE, thus far, has proven incredibly successful in making our government more efficient,” she said.

According to a White House office, DOGE’s breakneck pace comes at the behest of Trump to portray an aura of efficiency, even internally, to the public.

The confusion sparked by the email comes amid increasing attacks against the Musk-led department, not just from Democrats but also more centrist Republicans facing constituent backlash in their districts.

“It should not be Elon Musk’s call,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). “I was glad to see the pushback.”

Musk added more confusion when he posted Monday on X, “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.”

He also railed against federal employees who did not respond to the email, even though many were advised not to by Cabinet officials, saying the request was “utterly trivial.”

“The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send! Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers,” Musk said in a post to X. “Have you ever witnessed such INCOMPETENCE and CONTEMPT for how YOUR TAXES are being spent?”

Musk’s hard-charging handling of the federal workforce may have to be adjusted as he acclimates to Washington, said Sarah Chamberlain, Republican Main Street Partnership president and CEO.

“Elon Musk is used to doing this in Silicon Valley, which is a little different than doing this with federal employees,” Chamberlain said. “I support the White House standing behind him because this has to get done.”

The Office of Personnel Management eventually conceded Monday afternoon that the email was no longer mandatory and that federal workers wouldn’t risk their jobs if they didn’t respond to the email.

Some agencies that handle sensitive information, including the FBI, State Department, and Pentagon, also directed employees not to address Musk’s email. Notably, newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel was among those who defied Musk’s demands.

At least 1 million federal workers responded to Musk’s email, Leavitt told White House reporters while also clarifying the chain of command in the government.

“The agency heads will determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies,” Leavitt said at Tuesday’s briefing.

However, she declined to explicitly name Musk as the administrator of DOGE after repeated questioning from the press. A White House official later told the Washington Examiner that the DOGE administrator is Amy Gleason.

Musk, who is not a Senate-confirmed Cabinet member, will attend Trump’s Wednesday meeting with his entire Cabinet, in an example of his membership in Trump’s inner circle.

Yet criticisms against Musk’s DOGE efforts have not eased.

“I don’t have a problem with the DOGE effort going in and trying to accelerate changes and address efficiencies,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). “But I’ll tell you, if I were a Senate-confirmed head of a department, and I had somebody from the outside undermining my ability to manage and demonstrate there’s one leader in every department, I’d have a problem.”

“This is the ultimate d*ck boss move from Musk – except he isn’t even the boss, he’s just a d*ck,” wrote retiring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) on X, the platform Musk owns.

In a trolling post, Musk responded to Smith with the question: “What did you get done last week?”

“Listen – it’s not nuts to ask federal employees to report what they’re working on. My staff has to do weekly reports too,” wrote Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) on X. “But the WAY Musk is doing this? What’s he gonna do, read 2 million emails? This is just not serious stuff. It’s just emblematic of the carelessness with which he’s approached this whole enterprise.”

Jason Cabel Roe, a Republican strategist who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns, downplayed some of the Republican pushback to Musk’s work as an indirect rebuttal of Trump.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a little bit of a proxy, that these are people that might not be happy with the direction the administration is going, but they don’t have the courage to criticize Trump, and so they think they can get away with criticizing Elon because there’s no price to repay,” Roe said. “If there’s anyone keeping score on who friends and foes are of the White House, it’s the Trump administration, not Elon Musk.”

GOP strategists who spoke with the Washington Examiner defended Musk’s efforts and agreed with the Trump administration’s continued embrace of the billionaire leader.

Republican consultant Gregg Keller implored the Trump administration not to abandon Musk, despite growing opposition.

“President Trump not only should, but will, stand by Elon and DOGE. In fact, he publicly encouraged Elon on this just a couple days ago,” Keller said. “The federal debt is $36 trillion and counting, and the American people voted for exactly this kind of government accountability in November.”

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll released this month showed that 34% of those surveyed approved of how Musk is handling his job, 49% disapproved, and 14% were not sure.

Another recent poll from Quinnipiac University showed that 55% of voters said Musk has too much power in making decisions affecting the United States, 36% said Musk has about the right amount of power, and 3% said he has too little power.

Musk’s approval rating was similarly underwater according to a February Pew Research survey that showed 54% of U.S. adults have an unfavorable view of Musk, including 36% who have a very unfavorable opinion of him.

Keller pointed to a recent Harvard-Harris poll that showed 72% of those surveyed said there should be a federal agency focused on efficiency compared with 28% who said there shouldn’t be.

“Elon is on the right track, and President Trump knows it,” he added.

Chamberlain of the Republican Main Street Partnership noted that Musk could be indifferent to public perception.

“Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, I don’t know if he cares,” she said. “I think he’s really trying to tackle a problem and clean it up. Maybe it’s not the way that most people would do it.”

MUSK DEFENDS WORK PRODUCTIVITY REPORT REQUIREMENT AMID COLD SHOULDER FROM FBI’S PATEL

GOP consultant Matt Mackowiak, who was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, claimed that House Republicans would stand by Musk.

“I don’t see any reason for distance. I don’t see anything really building in that regard,” Mackowiak said as he met with lawmakers. “DOGE is highly popular among House Republicans.”

Samantha-Jo Roth and Naomi Lim contributed to this report.