Amna Nawaz
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WATCH: White House won't name DOGE administrator amid leadership questions
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February 25, 2025
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February 25, 2025
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0:48Now PlayingUPDATE: After this briefing, the White House named the acting DOGE administrator as Amy Gleason.
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. She declined to answer who the administrator is, saying that she would not reveal the name of the administrator from the White House podium.
The statement is important, as federal judges have recently called into question DOGE’s access to sensitive systems and data, and whether the department’s existence is constitutionally legal.
During a federal court hearing Monday over a lawsuit about DOGE’s access to sensitive data and systems maintained by the Treasury Department, the judge repeatedly asked a government attorney who DOGE’s administrator was. The attorney was unable to answer the judge’s questions.
PBS News White House correspondent Laura Barrón-López asked press secretary Karoline Leavitt during a news briefing Tuesday about the exchange and who DOGE’s administrator was.
"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,” while noting 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.”
Shortly after his 2024 presidential election win, 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 do not disclose the name of the DOGE administrator.
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