--- title: "Trump White House Tells Elon He’s Stepped Over the Line" description: "It took just over a month after his second inauguration, but it appears that Donald Trump may finally have put Elon Musk in his place." date: "2025-02-25" modified: "2025-02-25" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/trump-musk-ignore-order" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "politics" - "potus" --- # Trump White House Tells Elon He’s Stepped Over the Line ![It took just over a month after his second inauguration, but it appears that Donald Trump may finally have put Elon Musk in his place.]() *\Image: Alex Wong and Andrew Harnik via Getty / Futurism\* It took just over a month after his second inauguration, but it appears that Donald Trump may finally have put Elon Musk in his place. After Musk's team at DOGE [emailed virtually ]()[all federal workers]() over the weekend demanding that they summarize their activities over the past week in bullet points or risk termination, there was a [near-universal outcry]() at the sense of overreach — especially when it [emerged that Musk's plan]() was to feed the answers into an AI chatbot to decide which jobs were "necessary." The chaos was [so immense](), in fact, that Trump's administration ended up telling agency heads, per sources that [spoke to the *Washington Post*](), that they could simply "ignore the public decree from Elon Musk to effectively fire employees who do not send in bullet-point summaries of their work last week." It's a striking rebuke after Musk had been given seemingly unlimited rein over the federal government for weeks, and likely an inflection point in what's been an extremely cozy relationship between the billionaire Tesla owner and president Trump. But it shows that even the pair's chummy bond has limits. Though his own administration slapped the email's power down, Trump himself contradicted that guidance by praising it yesterday. "I thought \[the email\] was great," Trump told reporters during a Monday evening press conference, "because we have people that don’t show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government." Musk — not a man given to [submission to authority]() — seemed to publicly struggle to articulate why Trump had undermined his latest salvo against federal workers. "The email request was utterly trivial, as the standard for passing the test was to type some words and press send!" he [seethed online](). "Yet so many failed even that inane test, urged on in some cases by their managers." Minutes later, he seemed to get ahold of himself, issuing a Dwight Schrute-esque warning: even though his threat turned out to be totally empty before, next time it'll totally be real. "Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance," he [posted](). "Failure to respond a second time will result in termination." In an [interview with *Politico*](), an external Trump advisor who was granted anonymity to discuss the situation with candor said that although it's "too early" for White House staffers to be complaining openly about Musk, they are "hearing a lot of groans and seeing a lot of eye rolls." It's unclear exactly how much drama is occurring behind the scenes between the elected and unelected billionaire pair as they struggle for control of the US government — but one thing's for sure: with [Musk's public approval tanking](), Trump knows their fates are tied together, and that means Musk's carte-blanche to remake the federal government is now on thin ice. **More on Trump and Musk:** [*Wait, Was Elon's Son Just Caught on Camera Telling Trump What Musk Really Thinks of Him?*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()