Enticing

None of this is by the book.

Federal employees are receiving additional communications that appear designed to entice them to accept the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation offer, despite mounting questions about whether the offer is legal.

While the initial offer to federal employees to resign by Feb. 6 and retain their pay and benefits through Sept. 30 came directly from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), some of the latest guidance is coming from agency leaders, further sowing confusion over what’s to be believed.

Employment attorneys and union representatives emphasize that OPM, which handles many human resource matters for federal workers, lacks the authority to promise paid leave for government employees other than its own.

Oh. Interesting. So they’re promising money they can’t deliver. How con artist-like – how trumpish.

Moreover, agency budgets are controlled by Congress, not OPM, and many agencies will run out of money on March 14 if Congress doesn’t approve a new budget or pass another continuing resolution.

What?? You mean Congress has actual powers? Powers that Trump doesn’t have? How is that even possible? The president is supposed to be an absolute monarch, isn’t he? (Never she, obvs.)

In a blog post, Robert Reich, former secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton, urged federal workers to reject the resignation offer, tying it directly to billionaire Elon Musk, who is seen as the architect of the “Fork in the Road” deal.

“Don’t accept Elon’s offer,” he wrote. “Congress could declare the entire offer illegal — which it is. Then where would you be?”

In the cold.

Meanwhile Trump hires who are running these agencies are telling their people the opposite, because of course they are.

Additionally, the emails from agency leaders tell employees that except in rare cases, those who resign can take a second, nongovernment job “during the deferred resignation period,” a claim also made in the FAQ posted to OPM’s website and shared with employees by multiple agencies.

“We encourage you to find a job in the private sector as soon as you would like to do so,” the FAQ reads. “The way to greater American prosperity is encouraging people to move from lower productivity jobs in the public sector to higher productivity jobs in the private sector.”

Elon? Is that you? It is, isn’t it.

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