Refusing to Publicly Reveal DOGE Head, White House Says It’s Been ‘Incredibly Transparent’

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has insisted Donald Trump is the “most transparent president in history,” refused on Tuesday to tell a reporter “from this podium” the name of the official administrator of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

For months—even before Donald Trump was sworn in as president—the White House had stated that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were “co-directors.” After Ramaswamy’s exit, the reins were left to the tech billionaire.

But amid mounting court cases largely surrounding DOGE and its actions, the White House put out a statement announcing that Musk was not the head of DOGE and was not making any decisions.

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According to CBS News last week, “a new court filing from the White House states that the Tesla CEO isn’t an employee of DOGE, adding that Musk ‘has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself.'”

In a federal court hearing, CBS added, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan “warned that the alleged actions by Musk and DOGE are ‘concerning’ and ‘troubling.’ She said the mass firings of thousands of federal workers is ‘not a small or common thing’ and noted that Musk has not been nominated to a position by the president or confirmed by the Senate.”

Tuesday afternoon, the White House continued its opaque refusal to publicly divulge the name of the administrator of DOGE.

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“I want to ask about a federal judge yesterday was saying that they didn’t know who the DOGE administrator was and was asking the lawyer for the administration who it was, and the lawyer responded, ‘I don’t know the answer to that,'” a reporter told Leavitt. “Can you tell us who the administrator of DOGE is?”

The press secretary, appearing angered, responded.

“Again, I’ve been asked to answer this question. Elon Musk is overseeing DOGE,” Leavitt said. “Elon Musk is a special government employee, which I’ve also been asked and have answered that question as well.”

“There are career officials at DOGE. There are political appointees at DOGE,” she continued.

“I’m not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium,” Leavitt declared, offering no reason for her refusal. “I’m happy to follow up and provide that to you. But we’ve been incredibly transparent about the way that DOGE is working.”

Lawfare senior editor Anna Bower has been posting portions of transcripts between judges and federal government attorneys about the head of DOGE. A few:

After Leavitt’s refusal to publicly reveal the administrator of DOGE, Semafor White House Correspondent Shelby Talcott reported “The DOGE *acting* Administrator is Amy Gleason, a White House official tells me.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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This article has been updated to include the reporting from Semfor’s Talcott.

Image via Reuters