- A White House official told Business Insider Amy Gleason is the acting DOGE administrator.
- Donald Trump tapped Elon Musk to lead DOGE.
- White House officials have previously said Musk is not the DOGE administrator.
A White House official on Tuesday said that a former US Digital Service official is serving as the acting head of DOGE.
In a statement to Business Insider, a White House official said that Amy Gleason is the acting DOGE administrator, appearing to put to rest a question that has hung over the White House’s DOGE office: Who is in charge?
President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day executive order created a DOGE administrator to lead the rebranded US Digital Service. Under penalty of perjury, a White House official recently said in a court filing that Elon Musk was not the administrator nor a DOGE employee. It remains unclear whether there is a DOGE administrator.
Earlier on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, refused to name the DOGE administrator during a back-and-forth with reporters. She also said Musk wasn’t the administrator.
“No, Elon Musk is a special government employee,” Leavitt said when pressed on the world’s richest man’s status.
“There are career officials at DOGE. There are political appointees at DOGE. I’m not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium,” she said. “I’m happy to follow up and provide that to you. But we have been incredibly transparent about the way DOGE has been working.”
Leavitt also said Trump had “asked Elon Musk to oversee DOGE.”
Business Insider followed up with the White House and a DOGE spokesperson. They did not immediately respond to our questions.
The White House has said Musk is a special government employee, a category of federal worker created to bring officials with expertise into the civil service part time. Musk is also a senior advisor to the president.
Trump and Musk have blurred the extent of Musk’s power. BI previously reported that Musk’s job title was “unlisted.”
Musk recently hosted a DOGE update with members of Congress on X, the social media platform he also owns. Trump has told reporters he asked Musk which type of people DOGE had hired. In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, Musk wielded a chainsaw onstage. His talk was titled “DOGE update.”
During the briefing, Leavitt told reporters that Musk would attend Trump’s first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“Elon will be in attendance tomorrow just to talk about DOGE’s efforts and how all the Cabinet secretaries are identifying waste, fraud, and abuse at their respective agencies,” Leavitt said.
It’s not just journalists asking about the position. On Monday, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly asked a Justice Department attorney if there was a DOGE administrator.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” the counsel responded, according to Lawfare.
Trump’s executive order dictates that the administrator answers to the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Twenty-one civil service employees who resigned en masse on Tuesday addressed their letter to Wiles.
In a footnote, they wrote that they addressed their letter to Wiles because “no one has been identified internally as the official Administrator or leader of the United States DOGE Service.”
February 25, 2025: This story has been updated to include Gleason’s name.
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