White House War! Trump's New Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard at Center of Power Struggle With The Don's 'First Buddy' Elon Musk Over His Brutal DOGE Email Demands
New Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard has become the latest senior White House official to snub request from Elon Musk.
Feb. 24 2025, Published 1:45 p.m. ET
Tulsi Gabbard has joined the growing ranks of senior officials at odds with Elon Musk over his DOGE email demands.
RadarOnline.com can reveal President Donald Trump's newly-installed intelligence chief told her staff to ignore the request from Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to email five of their accomplishments last week.
She joins FBI director Kash Patel in defying Musk's instruction.
Gabbard told her staff not to respond to Musk's request due to the 'sensitive and classified nature of our work.'
Musk's email ordered workers to reply to the message with five bullets detailing all of their accomplishments at work in the past week and to cc in their manager.
Gabbard, the new Director of National Intelligence, sent a blunt message to officials in her department about DOGE's request.
"Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email," read the message from the former Hawaii congresswoman.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Department of Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem have also told employees to disregard the order.
FBI director Kash Patel made it clear the FBI 'is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.'
The Tesla founder claimed on Sunday he was eager "to see who had a pulse and two working neurons" amid claims some government employees are barely working or checking their emails.
Patel made the biggest show in defying Musk, making it clear the FBI "is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures."
"When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses," he wrote.
Musk said he was eager "to see who had a pulse and two working neurons" among government employees.
Patel's interference is one of his first moves as the new head of the FBI, offering a glimpse at potential rifts within the MAGA world as Musk continues tearing apart the federal government.
When he sent the original email earlier Saturday, Musk also took to his X platform to threaten any employees that do not reply to him with termination.
It remains to be seen if Musk will attempt to make good on his threat to fire any FBI agents that follow Patel's guidelines, pitting the two Trump insiders against each other. The FBI did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Musk's email to all federal agents demanding they detail their work weeks to him came after Trump ordered him to be "more aggressive" with his cost-cutting measures.
"Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," he wrote on X
"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," the Space X founder added.
It is unclear if this threat could be upheld legally or if it violates U.S. labor laws.
DOGE has cut tens of billion dollars from the federal budget in its first month in power, starkly dividing opinions in Washington as some praise the cost-cutting measures while others argue the widespread cuts have also impacted needed work.
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Gabbard was sworn into her new role as Intelligence Chief earlier this month by Trump at the White House.
While some have fumed over some cuts, including firing a number of Department of Energy workers that oversee America's nuclear arsenal, which Trump quickly reversed, MAGA Republicans say other funding was a huge waste.
In one of the most shocking announcements, DOGE said last week that it has cut at least $1.9billion of misplaced funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and said former President Joe Biden's administration was to blame.
"These funds were earmarked for the administration of financial services, but were no longer needed," DOGE wrote in a post to X, adding that the funds were lost in the first place due to a "broken process."
The department added: "The funds are now available for other use by the Treasury."
