- No one seems to know who's legally in charge of DOGE. The White House has said it isn't Elon Musk—despite the billionaire being the face of the team for months.
No one seems to be sure who is running the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE.
Despite evidence to the contrary, the White House has said Elon Musk is not heading up the cost-cutting team or even an employee of the department.
In a recent court filing, the White House said that Musk is a presidential senior advisor and "has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself." The court filing is part of a lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico and 13 other Democratic attorneys general alleging that Musk has overstepped the bounds of his authority.
Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration, said in the filing that Musk was an employee of the White House while DOGE was separate from it. He added that Musk was not the service administrator of DOGE or even an employee of the department—despite the billionaire repeatedly advocating for the team and publicizing its efforts.
A DOJ representative also said he didn't know who DOGE's administrator was when asked by two reporters in court.
Even within the United States Digital Service Department itself, employees are reportedly confused about the chain of command. According to a report by Wired, multiple legacy USDS employees don't know who the acting administrator is despite asking several times.
One USDS employee said they had received "no correspondence as far as who the head of this organization was” after Ted Carstensen, the highest-ranking legacy USDS leader, resigned from the organization on Feb. 6.
Representatives for DOGE, Musk, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
Musk has been the face of DOGE
Musk has become the public face of DOGE over the last few months.
Back in November, he penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that laid out the vision and mission for DOGE. And around the same time, then President-elect Donald Trump said Elon Musk “will lead” the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump has since referred to DOGE as Musk's team, and the billionaire has appeared in the Oval Office to defend its cost-cutting efforts. Musk has also repeatedly posted about the team on his social media platform, X, and has promoted the DOGE website.
Steve Davis, who is president of one of Musk's companies and was instrumental in overhauling Twitter—now X—is one of the people rumored to be in charge of the department, according to Wired.
One former USDS employee told the outlet that Davis had "always been articulated as the leader of DOGE, but when I ask if he’s the administrator, [managers] say we don't know.”
A layer of legal insulation
The confusion over who is legally in charge of the team may add a layer of legal insulation for the Trump administration and Musk himself, legal and political professionals said.
“The White House is constructing the most defensible way to get around what is either a violation of the law or the exploitation of a series of loopholes,” Jeff Hauser, founder and executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a government accountability watchdog, previously told Fortune.
In claiming he has no authority to execute the law and can only offer advice, “Musk cannot be sued for DOGE activities,” John Yoo, the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, said.
“As a White House advisor, Musk is really just an extension of the president himself. Any lawsuit would have to really be against the president or the United States government," he added.
