Wag the DOGE: White House in full spin mode over Musk’s chaotic mess
Who’s calling the chaotic and catastrophic shots at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency? The question keeps coming up, and the answer keeps changing.
On Tuesday, a reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt—and she couldn’t give a straight answer.
“Again, I’ve been asked to answer this question. Elon Musk is overseeing DOGE,” Leavitt said in the same glib way she threatens Social Security cuts on television. But she quickly backtracked, saying, “Elon Musk is a special government employee.”
“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 continued. “I’m happy to follow up and provide that to you. But we’ve been incredibly transparent about the way that DOGE is working.”
That’s not what “transparent” means.
After that exchange, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott reported that a White House official said Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of DOGE. Gleason’s Linkedin profile lists her as a senior adviser for the U.S. Digital Service. She worked at the service during Trump’s first administration as well, then moved into the private sector.
That’s perhaps the most detailed response anyone from the Trump administration has given so far. Donald Trump signed the executive order creating DOGE and putting Musk in charge of it. But just last week, a Department of Justice lawyer told a federal judge that Musk has no actual authority.
That didn’t stop Trump from insisting, days later, that Musk really is in charge.
So who’s actually making all of the disastrous decisions at DOGE that are wreaking such havoc and chaos across the federal government? Musk? Gleason? Trump? No one seems to really know the answer—and maybe that’s the point.
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