This is who the White House says is the DOGE acting administrator

Washington — A White House official said Tuesday that Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency, after the White House struggled to answer who is technically at the top of the organizational chart. 

Gleason declined to comment on her appointment as acting DOGE administrator. Gleason’s LinkedIn lists her as a U.S. Digital Services senior adviser, and she has a background in consulting and the medical field. 

When CBS News spoke to Gleason on Tuesday morning ahead of her announcement as DOGE acting administrator, she said she was in Mexico and declined to comment further.

Gleason’s role as acting administrator came as a surprise to USDS employees who, like Gleason, were folded into DOGE, CBS News learned Tuesday evening. Those employees learned of her new position “in the past few hours” even though they had been asking for weeks who was going to fill the job, CBS News was told. 

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that Gleason had been in the job for “quite some time, at least several weeks, maybe a month.” When asked why DOGE employees only learned of her role yesterday, Leavitt said “you would have to ask them” and “they’re clearly unaware, I don’t know.”

In various court cases concerning DOGE’s activities, Justice Department lawyers have been asked multiple times to identify who is leading DOGE, including just last week. The government lawyers have said they did not know. 

Earlier Tuesday, 21 staff members of DOGE who were part of USDS prior to Musk’s arrival said in a letter sent to the White House that they were resigning. 

Last week, the White House said in a court filing that Elon Musk isn’t an employee of DOGE, and “has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” after President Trump previously announced Musk would run the cost-cutting project. The White House hasn’t had a clear answer since who is in charge of DOGE. 

During Tuesday’s White House briefing, Leavitt said she wouldn’t provide the name of the acting administrator from the podium, but would follow up.

“President tasked Elon Musk to oversee the DOGE effort,” Leavitt said. “There are career officials and there are political appointees who are helping run DOGE on a day-to-day basis. 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.”

Musk, a special government employee, will attend Mr. Trump’s first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Leavitt confirmed earlier this week. 

Over the weekend, federal workers received an email instructing them to list five things they accomplished in the week prior, and Musk said those who didn’t reply would lose their jobs. Multiple agencies told workers to ignore the request and not to reply. It’s not clear what will happen next. 

contributed to this report.