Shannon Bond

And immediately we just saw like utter confusion and chaos across federal agencies. You know, workers are being like, am I supposed to respond to this? Like some of them are like, I work on classified material or, you know, and it said don't put any classified information in. But like a lot of people were quite nervous about like what is going to be done with this? How do I respond?

Agencies start in some cases saying, yes, this is fine. Go ahead and respond. Other agencies, including the State Department, the Defense Department, Homeland Security are like, absolutely not. Do not send this in. And, you know, that is some of the first sort of real backlash we've gotten against Musk by, you know, people in the cabinet, right?

Agencies start in some cases saying, yes, this is fine. Go ahead and respond. Other agencies, including the State Department, the Defense Department, Homeland Security are like, absolutely not. Do not send this in. And, you know, that is some of the first sort of real backlash we've gotten against Musk by, you know, people in the cabinet, right?

Agencies start in some cases saying, yes, this is fine. Go ahead and respond. Other agencies, including the State Department, the Defense Department, Homeland Security are like, absolutely not. Do not send this in. And, you know, that is some of the first sort of real backlash we've gotten against Musk by, you know, people in the cabinet, right?

Cabinet level secretaries saying, hold on, you know, we run these agencies. This is our workforce. We get to control and manage what they're doing. And you can't just sort of order people to do this. But it does raise all these questions. I mean, many of the workers I were talking to were saying, like, who's in charge here? Like, is it the agency? And then in some cases is telling me,

Cabinet level secretaries saying, hold on, you know, we run these agencies. This is our workforce. We get to control and manage what they're doing. And you can't just sort of order people to do this. But it does raise all these questions. I mean, many of the workers I were talking to were saying, like, who's in charge here? Like, is it the agency? And then in some cases is telling me,

Cabinet level secretaries saying, hold on, you know, we run these agencies. This is our workforce. We get to control and manage what they're doing. And you can't just sort of order people to do this. But it does raise all these questions. I mean, many of the workers I were talking to were saying, like, who's in charge here? Like, is it the agency? And then in some cases is telling me,

First to respond, then telling me not to respond, you know, with supervisors or giving people conflicting information. You have Musk continuing to say on X, if people don't respond, they're going to be fired. You have OPM first coming out and saying, actually, this is voluntary, then putting out another memo being like, well, it's up to the agencies to decide if it's voluntary or not.

First to respond, then telling me not to respond, you know, with supervisors or giving people conflicting information. You have Musk continuing to say on X, if people don't respond, they're going to be fired. You have OPM first coming out and saying, actually, this is voluntary, then putting out another memo being like, well, it's up to the agencies to decide if it's voluntary or not.

First to respond, then telling me not to respond, you know, with supervisors or giving people conflicting information. You have Musk continuing to say on X, if people don't respond, they're going to be fired. You have OPM first coming out and saying, actually, this is voluntary, then putting out another memo being like, well, it's up to the agencies to decide if it's voluntary or not.

Like, just again, like people are just like, who is in charge? Who is making the decisions here? And I think we're going to see, like, to what degree do some of these political appointees who have been Senate confirmed, right, to their positions? you know, how are they going to continue to assert their power over Musk?

Like, just again, like people are just like, who is in charge? Who is making the decisions here? And I think we're going to see, like, to what degree do some of these political appointees who have been Senate confirmed, right, to their positions? you know, how are they going to continue to assert their power over Musk?

Like, just again, like people are just like, who is in charge? Who is making the decisions here? And I think we're going to see, like, to what degree do some of these political appointees who have been Senate confirmed, right, to their positions? you know, how are they going to continue to assert their power over Musk?

So like an example here is like the Department of Energy, right? Which as we reported on, you know, when these sort of initial probationary layoffs or firings happened, you know, cut a bunch of workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration. You know, these are people who work with nuclear warheads and then had to rehire them, right?

So like an example here is like the Department of Energy, right? Which as we reported on, you know, when these sort of initial probationary layoffs or firings happened, you know, cut a bunch of workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration. You know, these are people who work with nuclear warheads and then had to rehire them, right?

So like an example here is like the Department of Energy, right? Which as we reported on, you know, when these sort of initial probationary layoffs or firings happened, you know, cut a bunch of workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration. You know, these are people who work with nuclear warheads and then had to rehire them, right?

Because actually they were like, oh no, we can't actually fire these people. Like we need these people. They're very much in the position now, right? I think there's a bit of like

Because actually they were like, oh no, we can't actually fire these people. Like we need these people. They're very much in the position now, right? I think there's a bit of like

Because actually they were like, oh no, we can't actually fire these people. Like we need these people. They're very much in the position now, right? I think there's a bit of like

You know, the actual functionality of these agencies, they do have work to do and they need to make sure that if they are going to trim down, they trim, you know, not trimming people who actually need to be doing some of this work. And I guess I think some of this is about like ego and sort of turf battles over like who ultimately is the decider here.