White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that while Elon Musk is a “special government employee” who is “overseeing” the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, he is not the administrator of the special agency tasked with streamlining the federal government. Leavitt declined to “reveal” the administrator from the White House podium, but promised to follow up with the name.
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Federal judges have stepped in to restrict DOGE’s access to private data and systems or question whether the department’s existence is constitutional.
During a federal court hearing Monday over a lawsuit about DOGE’s access to sensitive information maintained by the Treasury Department, the judge repeatedly asked a government attorney to name DOGE’s administrator. The attorney was unable to answer the judge’s questions.
PBS News White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López asked Leavitt during a news briefing Tuesday about the identity of DOGE’s administrator.
“Elon Musk is overseeing DOGE,” Leavitt said.
When asked if that meant that Musk was the administrator, Leavitt said, “No. Elon Musk is a special government employee,” and responded that she has answered the question about Musk’s role in DOGE repeatedly.
“There are career officials at DOGE. There are political appointees at DOGE,” Leavitt said. “We’ve been incredibly transparent about the way that DOGE is working.”
The White House named Amy Gleason as the acting DOGE administrator after Tuesday’s briefing.
Shortly after his 2024 win, President-elect Donald Trump said Musk would “lead” DOGE with Vivek Ramaswamy. Yet, in court papers filed last week, the Trump administration said Musk is not a DOGE employee and has “no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.” The documents did not disclose the name of the DOGE administrator.
