After a long wait, the White House on Tuesday finally revealed the name of the person reportedly in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Amy Gleason, a senior adviser at the U.S. Digital Service, is currently serving as the acting administrator of DOGE, a White House official confirmed to The New York Post.
The U.S. Digital Service (USDS), a technology-focused division within the executive branch, was restructured as DOGE at the beginning of President Trump's second term. Gleason previously worked as a digital services expert for USDS during Trump's first term and also held various roles in the private sector and nonprofit organizations, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The Person Running the DOGE Show
The Washington Examiner was the first to report Gleason's official role as the head of DOGE. It remains unclear how much actual authority Gleason holds as the acting administrator of DOGE, the federal cost-cutting initiative that has been publicly associated with billionaire Elon Musk.
Court filings from last week revealed that Musk is not officially employed by DOGE but instead serves as a senior adviser to Trump, according to the administration.
In a signed declaration submitted to a Washington, D.C., federal court, Office of Administration Director Joshua Fisher said that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO is classified as a special government employee. In this role, Musk has the ability to "advise" and "relay" Trump's directives.
These directives include recommendations regarding DOGE staff and other executive branch employees, a White House spokesperson informed The Post last week.
The court filing did not name Gleason as DOGE's acting administrator, and as recently as Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to reveal the official leader of the team responsible for eliminating government waste, fraud, and abuse.
"The president tasked Elon Musk to oversee the DOGE effort. There are career officials and there are political appointees who are helping run DOGE on a day-to-day basis," Leavitt told reporters during Tuesday's White House press briefing.
"There are also individuals who have onboarded as political appointees at every agency across the board to work alongside President Trump's cabinet to find and identify waste, fraud, and abuse, and they are working on that effort every day," she added.
DOGE Continues to Face Protest
Musk's DOGE initiative, designed to cut federal spending by at least $1 trillion, claims to have already saved taxpayers about $55 billion. These savings reportedly come from cutting government grants, recovering misplaced funds, downsizing federal agencies, and eliminating thousands of government jobs.
However, DOGE has also been facing backlash from several sections. Over the past month, DOGE has aggressively pushed through multiple federal agencies, demanding access to sensitive data, conducting in-depth performance reviews with staff, and most recently, requesting email records detailing federal employees' weekly accomplishments.
After an email—sent to nearly all federal employees from a sender labeled "HR," but actually originating from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)—asked, "What did you do last week?", several of Trump's top officials had to step in to clarify the vague message from Musk's team.
Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel ordered his staff to ignore the email, while the Pentagon, under Pete Hegseth's leadership, also issued a statement advising employees not to respond to the request from "HR."
