Elon Musk isn't running DOGE but Amy Gleason is, says White House official

By Gregory Korte 

The White House said the head of the Department of Government Efficiency — the wide-ranging federal cost-cutting initiative associated with Elon Musk — is a little-known official named Amy Gleason.  

Gleason, a health care technology executive, is serving as the acting administrator of DOGE, according to a White House official, who requested anonymity to discuss a matter that is not public. 

 

Tuesday’s revelation came after the White House faced repeated questions from reporters about who is running the executive-branch initiative but declined to name the official.

 

The arrangement means that Musk does not hold the legal role of DOGE head, even though the billionaire is overseeing and appears to be directing its activities. It is unusual for the identity of the head of a government agency to be kept private.

 

Questions about Musk’s official relationship to DOGE, an operation under the jurisdiction of the White House Office of Management and Budget, has been at the center of legal battles about DOGE’s actions, which have included sweeping job cuts, canceling government contracts and attempts to shutter entire federal agencies. 

 

“Where is Mr. Musk in all of this?,” US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly asked government lawyers during a Monday court hearing in one of the suits. The Justice Department attorney responded that while Musk is a Trump adviser, he could not identify the DOGE administrator, or even confirm there is one. The lawyer could also not say if DOGE is an official government agency. 

 

The White House said in a recent court filing that the billionaire is a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, and not a DOGE employee.

 

As a White House adviser to the president, instead an official employee of DOGE, Musk’s advice will likely be shielded by executive privilege and his communications are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

 

Still, it’s Musk, not Gleason, who has been the public face of DOGE, speaking about the cost-cutting efforts alongside Trump from the Oval Office and posting on X about DOGE’s plans, including threats to fire federal workers who don’t comply with his requests.  

 

On her LinkedIn page, Gleason identifies herself as a senior adviser to the US DOGE Service, a White House agency focused on improving technology founded as the US Digital Service by President Barack Obama and renamed by Trump. She worked in that agency during Trump’s first administration and into Joe Biden’s presidency. 

 

The DOGE administrator position reports to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles under an executive order Trump signed on Jan. 20.

 

Gleason’s resume shows she spent the last three years at Russell Street Ventures, a Nashville, Tennessee health care investment company.