Musk caused alarm among federal employees over an email sent on Saturday requesting that employees summarize their work.

Musk initially said the request was a 'very basic pulse check,' but now says it will root out 'non-existent people or...dead people' who are collecting paychecks. Several agencies are telling employees to ignore the email for now.

Officials at the FBI and State Department sent their staff emails telling them not to respond outside their chains of command, in a possible sign of tension between the president's allies and Elon Musk.