• Federal workers were told to send a list of accomplishments by midnight on Monday or lose their jobs.
• However, some federal agencies are telling their employees not to respond.
• President Donald Trump and Elon Musk appear intent on moving forward with the request.

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk want federal workers to report a list of their achievements over the last week, but some federal agencies are telling their employees not to do that.

On Saturday, the Office of Personnel Management sent an email to federal workers asking them to send an "email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week" by Monday 11:59 p.m. ET.

Musk wrote in an X post on Saturday that "failure to respond will be taken as a resignation."

At least eight federal agencies have told their employees that they did not have to respond to the OPM's email.

Trump and Musk, however, seem intent on moving forward with the request.

What Trump is saying

"I thought it was great because we have people that don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government," Trump said of the email and Musk during a press conference on Monday.

"So by asking the question, 'Tell us what you did this week,' what he's doing is saying, 'Are you actually working?' And then, if you don't answer, you are sort of semi-fired, or you're fired," Trump added.

When asked about the differing guidance agencies gave on the request, Trump said that had been "done in a friendly manner" and that they weren't running counter to Musk's actions.

"Only things such as perhaps, Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things, or the FBI where they are working on confidential things. They don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon," Trump said.

"They are just saying that there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they are working on last week. But other than that, I think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea," Trump added.

The email to federal workers appears to be a response to Trump's Truth Social post on Saturday, in which he praised Musk's work with DOGE but said he would like to see Musk "get more aggressive."

Musk's latest comments on the DOGE ask

On Monday, Musk wrote in an X post that federal workers who have yet to respond to the request "will be given another chance."

"Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination," Musk wrote.

Musk has also made several comments about the initiative on X, saying on Sunday that the email was meant to be a "basic" ask for government employees.

In a Monday morning X post responding to Garry Tan, the president and CEO of Y Combinator, Musk said the DOGE request was "basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email."

"This mess will get sorted out this week," Musk wrote. "Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don't get it yet, but they will."

Later, on Monday night, Musk wrote that he thought the request was "utterly trivial" and that 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 wrote, adding that he thought such "incompetence" made "old Twitter look good."

The request echoes one that Musk made to employees at X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Shortly after he bought the social network in October 2022, Musk asked software engineers to print out their latest code for review.

Representatives for the White House and DOGE did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Guidance varies across departments

There are already at least 8 agencies that have told workers that they don't have to respond to DOGE's email yet. These include the Department of Defense, the Social Security Administration, NASA, the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture, the State Department, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Health and Human Services.

It is unclear how the White House plans to square this with DOGE since the agencies' guidance contradicts the OPM email deadline.

According to emails seen by Business Insider, some departments have told workers that responses about productivity and accomplishments will be handled by the agencies, not staff.

Meanwhile, other government departments have told employees that they can respond to OPM if they wish, but not responding will not incur penalties.

On Sunday, the Department of Defense posted on X that employees should "pause any response" to the DOGE email.

"The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and it will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures," the statement read.

There have been conflicting communications from some government departments, which first told staff to respond to the OPM email before reversing course.

For instance, the Social Security Administration told employees on Sunday that the OPM email is a "legitimate assignment." The agency then told employees on Monday afternoon that responding is "voluntary."

"Non-responses are not considered a resignation," the agency's email to employees read.

This turmoil comes at the end of a chaotic few weeks for government employees, as Musk's DOGE proposed broad head count cuts across government agencies.

Thousands of federal workers have been fired. Some of these workers received termination notices saying that the job cuts were based on performance, per documents BI viewed.

• Alex Karp said if he were not running Palantir, he'd move to his "hermit-like location."
• At the Economic Club of New York, Karp said he'd lean into hobbies like Tai Chi, shooting guns, and reading.
• Karp, known for being an eccentric leader, has run Palantir since 2004.

Alex Karp said if he were not running Palantir, he probably wouldn't be running another company — he'd be living like a "hermit" and focusing on his hobbies.

The billionaire CEO of the big-data analytics company made the comments on Monday while speaking at the Economic Club of New York.

When asked what he'd be doing if he wasn't leading Palantir, Karp said that while he is suited to running the defense contractor, he wasn't "built to run another company."

"I am a little bit of a hermit, and the minute they fire me, I'm going to be moving back to my hermit-like location and doing my hermit dance," he said, adding that involved things like reading, shooting guns, Tai Chi, and cross country skiing.

Karp also said he's an "introvert" and is not interested in running for office.

He added that he'd also spend time with some friends and might engage in some "debaucherous behavior," prompting laughter from the crowd.

Karp has gained a reputation as an eccentric leader in Silicon Valley known for being a health and wellness fanatic who keeps Tai Chi swords in his office.

Karp has been CEO of Palantir, which he cofounded, since 2004, building it into a multi-billion-dollar company and major government contractor.

During its earnings call earlier this month, the company reported US revenue growth of 52% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2024, beating analyst expectations. However, Palantir's stock has taken a hit over the past week due to the possibility of defense spending cuts.

During the talk on Monday, Karp also shared why he left academia. After attending law school at Stanford University, Karp pursued a Ph.D. in philosophy at a university in Germany.

"I left academia because I felt like I was almost always right, and it didn't matter because it was all politics," Karp said. "So I had to go into business because in business there is a deliverable."

Counselor to President Donald Trump Alina Habba spoke about Elon Musk's email deadline for federal workers.

AI-generated images appearing to show Trump kissing Musk's feet appeared on screens at HUD headquarters on Monday.

A pair of former major league catchers on the 'Foul Territory' podcast expect the New York Yankees to land Nolan Arenado if the third baseman is traded.

Organized thieves target freight trains in western deserts, stealing millions in Nike sneakers with sophisticated heist operations.

Musk fumed—and issued another threat—after federal workers were told they didn't have to comply with a demand to justify their jobs.

The list of no's is growing for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), and time isn't on his side.

Why it matters: Flipping votes on a budget resolution isn't impossible, but it could force Johnson to delay bringing it to the floor.

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• ⏰ That would further undermine the House's effort to get "one big, beautiful bill" over to the Senate by the end of April.
• 💥 Two current public "no" votes, Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), say the spending cuts aren't enough.
• 🙉 At least one other Republican is a private "no" vote, Burchett told reporters Monday evening.

Johnson and his leadership team are projecting public confidence they will be able to pass the resolution Tuesday evening.

• "There's a couple of folks who just have lingering questions," Johnson told reporters Monday, "but I think all those questions can be answered and we'll be able to move forward."
• "We'll see," Johnson told reporters when asked if the vote is still on for Tuesday night. "But it'll happen this week."

🚨Johnson says he won't negotiate ahead of a vote, including with moderates who are concerned by Medicaid cuts.

• "Everybody needs to understand that the resolution is merely the starting point for the process," Johnson said Monday, per Politico.

The big picture: Johnson sided with his most conservative lawmakers in building this budget package. Now they're threatening to leave him hanging.

• "If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) posted on X.

Zoom in: Johnson is trying to fuse together 218 votes with the unusual combination of a huge debt limit increase, deep spending cuts and Trump's wish list on tax cuts.

• Johnson has freaked out his moderates with the depth of the spending cut targets, which will be hard to hit without cuts to Medicaid and nutrition programs.
• That's for naught if conservatives tank the bill first.

Zoom out: Some senior Republicans remained optimistic that the current framework — which will also add up to $4.5 trillion in tax breaks if Congress cuts $2 trillion in spending — will eventually find enough votes for passage.

• "It's going to reduce the debt to GDP ratio," Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told reporters. "It's important to me and important to our president."
• "I don't expect it to change," he said. "I feel like we landed at a really good place."
• "We're going to be fine," Arrington told Axios.

The federal agency that sent out an email over the weekend asking workers what they accomplished last week can't fire those workers for not responding, claims an amended lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of federal employees.

Why it matters: It's the latest potential legal stumbling block for DOGE and Elon Musk's slash-and-burn workforce strategy.

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Catch up fast: Over the weekend, at President Trump's prodding to be more aggressive, Musk announced that workers would get an email asking what they'd done in the past week. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," he said.

• The email went out on Saturday to millions of workers — subject line "What did you do last week"? — causing confusion and an array of responses inside federal agencies, with many telling employees not to respond.
• Crucially, the email did not threaten workers with termination.

Where it stands: On Monday afternoon, President Trump appeared to back Musk's threat — if employees don't respond to that email, "you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired," he said, answering reporter questions during an event with French President Emanuel Macron.

• "A lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist."

Reality check: Musk and the White House have provided no evidence to back up that claim.

Zoom in: The Monday lawsuit amends an earlier complaint filed by a coalition of unions, including the AFL-CIO and American Federation of Government Employees.

• It challenges the legality of mass firings of probationary workers — those that have been employed in their current roles for only a short time. Tens of thousands of such workers have been terminated, per the suit.
• Only federal agencies have the ability to hire and fire their workers, the lawsuit says.

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government's HR office, which sent out the email over the weekend, does not have that authority, the suit alleges.

• "In creating OPM and delegating duties to its Director, Congress did not authorize OPM or its Director to order the termination of employees at any other federal agency."

The intrigue: Several federal agencies have told their workers not to respond to the email request.

• If their agency does require a response, workers have until 11:59 pm Monday to do so.
• After that, it's up to federal agencies to decide next steps, a White House official told Axios Monday afternoon — before President Trump's "semi-firing" comment.

What to watch: Also on Monday, an independent federal oversight agency said that some of the administration's mass firings of probationary workers were unlawful, per a report in Government Executive.

The bottom line: It's a confusing time to work for the federal government.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with additional reporting on the firings of probationary workers.

• Juliana Pasquarosa is one of the contestants on Grant Ellis' season of "The Bachelor."
• She caught Grant's attention on night one, but doesn't go on a one-on-one date until week five.
• Juliana is a 28-year-old client service associate based in Newton, Massachusetts.

As the competition heats up on season 29 of "The Bachelor," contestant Juliana Pasquarosa is quickly becoming a strong contender for Grant Ellis' heart.

"It has been so long since I have had a big crush or felt the butterfly feelings for a man. It's a little bit of a fairytale and my heart's happy," Juliana, 28, says during week three.

By week five of the show, Juliana is one of the seven remaining women. After patiently waiting all season, she finally gets to spend solo time with Grant during a one-on-one date in Scotland on Monday night's episode, and their connection grows even stronger.

Here's everything to know about Juliana.

Juliana has a job in finance

Grant is a day trader, and Juliana also has some ties to the financial sector. According to her LinkedIn profile, Juliana has been working as a client service associate at Winthrop Wealth, a wealth management firm, since May. She's also a social media manager for La Beautique Salon.

She graduated from Lasell College with a degree in marketing in 2018.

Juliana's family is the most important thing to her

In her intro package during the season premiere, Juliana says, "My family is like the center of my life."

"We're big, Italian, loud, crazy,'" she adds. "We really support each other."

Juliana also explains that she was cheated on a lot during a long relationship, which led her to a "dark place," but she credited her family with picking her up.

Juliana's ABC bio says that her parents were high school sweethearts, and she hopes to similarly find lasting love.

Based on the caption of one of her Instagram posts, Juliana's older sister signed her up for "The Bachelor" without telling her. Given how things are going with Juliana and Grant so far on the show, she may have to thank her sister.

She loves dogs

Juliana has a dog named Charlie and her ABC bio says that she "wants to own a dog-friendly bar one day."

"For a random $5-Walmart-parking-lot purchase, you sure turned out to be one of the biggest blessings," Juliana wrote in part on Instagram.

Juliana's bubbly disposition gets Grant's attention from the start

After sharing a cannoli with Grant during her limo entrance on night one, Juliana impresses the Bachelor with her piano skills later that evening.

"Juliana immediately has my attention," Grant says. "She has some skills that I definitely don't have. Not to mention, she's gorgeous. She's a talented woman and I love that."

Juliana also tells Grant that she's a bubbly person because of the love she got from her family. Although the competition begins with 25 women, Grant tells her that he has his eyes on her.

"I like your personality and you're beautiful," he tells her before they share their first kiss.

Their connection gets overshadowed by some of the drama throughout season 29, but Juliana does eventually get to spend time with Grant at a castle in Scotland.

"I just feel like a princess," Juliana says. "Cinderella can take a full backseat because this is like, next-level type of love."

New episodes of season 29 of "The Bachelor" premiere on Mondays.

The pop icon and the Jamaican soccer player were spotted on the Upper West Side over the weekend.

Tomorrow's Golf League is back on Monday as Boston Common Golf takes on Atlanta Drive GC at SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

A top-10 Big 12 showdown takes center stage on ESPN's Big Monday as No. 5 Houston visits No. 9 Texas Tech at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock.

Researchers hope their findings help doctors prescribe antidepressants "that are better adapted for patients with dementia."

Season 29 of "The Bachelor" continues its dramatic journey toward romance with Grant Ellis still on the search for his soulmate.

The game show host was jumping for joy with a contestant who had won a huge sum.

Justice Clarence Thomas issued a scathing dissent Monday after the Supreme Court declined to hear a case challenging free speech rights around abortion clinics, suggesting he wants to revisit the matter after the court ended the federal constitutional right to abortion in 2022.

The big picture: The high court's move marked a loss for abortion opponents who claimed their First Amendment rights are violated by laws that limit demonstrations near clinics.

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• The Supreme Court majority did not explain their decision Monday in finding that the rules were in line with precedent set by Hill v. Colorado (2000). In that case, the high court held that the restrictions on speech-related conduct are constitutional because they regulate the places where some speech may occur, and not the speech itself.

Zoom in: Both Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito dissented, but only the former conservative justice filed writing explaining his reasoning.

• Thomas argued against the high court's decision not to revisit precedent set in Hill v. Colorado (2000), which upheld free speech in buffer zones around abortion clinics.
• "I would have taken this opportunity to explicitly overrule Hill," he wrote in his dissent.
• He argued the court erroneously treated the Hill case differently than others pertaining to the First Amendment because abortion was involved, writing, "Hill's abortion exceptionalism turned the First Amendment upside down."

State of play: The case in question on Monday, Coalition Life v. City of Carbondale, originated in Carbondale, Illinois, where local officials passed an ordinance prohibiting protesters from getting within 8 feet of patients at the clinic without consent.

• The ordinance, which reflected precedent upheld in Hill, was repealed last year but an anti-abortion group based in Missouri proceeded with a lawsuit against it, taking aim at similar laws across the country.
• Carbondale is located near Illinois' southern border and became a destination for people in nearby states that ban abortions.

Zoom out: In Hill, the high court upheld a state law "restricting peaceful speech" within 100 feet of abortion clinics, Thomas wrote in his dissent. He was on the high court at the time Hill was decided and dissented in the 6-3 decision.

• He argued that errors in the case "were numerous" and that the decision "contradicted more than a half-century of well-established First Amendment principles."
• He wrote: "This Court had never—and since Hill, has never—taken such a narrow view of content-based speech restrictions."
• Thomas said the Hill case "manipulated this Court's First Amendment jurisprudence precisely to disfavor 'opponents of abortion' and their 'right to persuade women contemplating abortion that what they are doing is wrong.'"

Between the lines: Thomas noted that he wants to revisit Hill in order to give clarity to lower courts, "who feel bound by it," particularly after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022.

• "Following our repudiation in Dobbs, I do not see what is left of Hill," he wrote.
• "Hill has been seriously undermined, if not completely eroded, and our refusal to provide clarity is an abdication of our judicial duty," Thomas wrote.

Go deeper: Abortion clinics brace for reinvigorated protests after Trump's pardons

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he supports efforts to make the government more efficient.
• "The government is inefficient, not very competent, and it needs a lot of work," Dimon said.
• Dimon also said the US has become a "highly bureaucratic, litigious, over-regulated society."

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said he has a "wait-and-see attitude" regarding the Trump administration and the White House DOGE office, but he's hopeful DOGE will succeed.

"More effective government — more efficient government — isn't bad. It's actually a good thing," Dimon said in an interview with CNBC on Monday during JPMorgan's Global Leveraged Finance Conference in Miami.

When asked about how DOGE, tariffs, and President Donald Trump's slew of executive orders could impact the economy, Dimon said it's too soon to say and will depend on how the changes are implemented.

But in general, he said he supports efforts to make the government more efficient and effective.

"The government is inefficient, not very competent, and it needs a lot of work," he said. "It's not just waste and fraud, it's outcomes. Why are we spending the money on these things? Are we getting what we deserve? What should we change? I think doing that needs to be done."

DOGE aims to reduce government spending and waste and improve efficiency. Much of its early efforts have focused on cutting the federal workforce and targeting specific federal agencies, like USAID.

"I'm hoping it's quite successful," he said of DOGE.

Dimon has previously had a rocky relationship with Elon Musk, a special government employee closely associated with DOGE, though the two have appeared to be on better terms over the past year. Dimon said last month he and Musk "hugged it out" and that the billionaires have settled some of their differences.

Dimon has also said he supported the idea of a department of government efficiency and that he'd love to be helpful to DOGE if he can.

In the CNBC interview on Monday Dimon also expressed support for the Trump administration's deregulation stance, saying the US is a "bureaucracy completely run amok."

"We have become a highly bureaucratic, litigious, over-regulated society, and it's bad," he said, adding that he's not opposed to all regulations but that they've gotten "excessive."

After the election in November, Dimon said bankers were "dancing in the street" at the prospect of Trump slashing regulation.

On Monday he said changes to regulations could free up capital to grow the economy and "free the banks to what they're supposed to do."

"We have the best natural system in the word," he said. "Let's keep it that way. Let's not hamstrung it."

Several government agencies have instructed employees to ignore Musk's demand that they justify their jobs.

Last week's poll of more than 2,400 voters gives insight into how they feel about Trump's sweeping changes.