WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Federal workers have until midnight to respond to a work email or risk being fired according to a threat Elon Musk posted on social media over the weekend.

There is a lot of confusion in Washington with some agencies telling employees to ignore the email.

Some legal experts say the ultimatum is illegal and federal workers are already suing to stop it.

President Donald Trump is endorsing Musk’s latest method to slash the federal government.

“It was a lot of genius in sending it,” said Trump.

Federal employees received an email Saturday from the Office of Personnel Management demanding workers provide five bullets explaining what they did last week.

At the same time on X, Musk wrote failure to reply would be taken as a resignation.

“If people don’t respond, it’s very possible there is no such person or they’re not working,” said Trump.

Leaders at several federal agencies, including the FBI, State Department and Pentagon, instructed their employees not to answer the email.

Meanwhile, employees at the Department of Transportation, Social Security Administration and Health and Human Services were told to comply.

HHS employs roughly 80,000 federal workers.

“You’ve got Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to the federal government,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen slammed Musk’s DOGE ultimatum.

“And we need to shut down this illegal operation,” said Van Hollen.

Even some Republicans like New York’s Nicole Malliotakis are expressing doubts.

“I don’t think it’s binding that you can fire people on Twitter,” said Malliotakis.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), however, is all in.

“So, Elon is in the middle, he’s gotten in the belly of the beast,” said Johnson.

The Office of Personnel Management said in a statement, the Trump administration’s commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce and agencies will determine next steps.