Several Trump administration officials leading federal agencies urged their employees not to comply with Elon Musk’s order to summarize their accomplishments for the past week or be removed from their positions, even as Mr. Musk doubled down on the demand over the weekend.
As the directive ricocheted across the federal government on Saturday evening, officials at some agencies, including the F.B.I., the State Department and the office coordinating America’s intelligence agencies, told their employees not to respond.
Those instructions in effect countermanded the order in some sectors of the government, challenging the broad authority President Trump has given to Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, to scrutinize the federal bureaucracy.
“The State Department will respond on behalf of the State Department,” wrote Tibor Nagy, a Trump appointee who is the department’s acting under secretary for management. “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their department chain of command.”
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of the office of national intelligence, ordered all intelligence community officers not to respond, in a message reviewed by The New York Times.
“Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email,” Ms. Gabbard wrote.