Experts said that Musk has given the impression of being in charge of Doge by staffing the government entity with employees and engineers from his various companies, posting constantly about its work on X, appearing alongside Trump in the Oval Office to promote the cuts it has made to the federal workforce, and representing it on stage at the Conservative Political Action Committee gathering last week while wielding a chainsaw.
Trump established Doge by renaming the United States Digital Service — an agency focused on digital and web infrastructure — to the United States Doge Service via an executive order.
The order establishes Doge’s leadership structure, saying that “there shall be a USDS Administrator” that reports up to the White House chief of staff.
It does not name a specific individual for the role. In fact, Musk’s name never appears in the executive order, though Trump has credited his work with the team.
Until the administration stated that Ms Gleason was the acting administrator late on Tuesday, it gave vague answers about Doge’s leadership across multiple lawsuits.
Though she did not rule in the hearing on Monday, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly expressed concern about Doge’s constitutionality. She noted it might run afoul of the appointment clause of the US Constitution, which sets out nominating procedures for agency leaders.
The White House has previously said that Musk “is a special government employee and has abided by all applicable federal laws”.
William Resh, a professor who studies the executive branch at the University of Southern California, said typically such employees have been hired as advisers for their relative expertise.
“But they do not hold distinct executive power the way that a Senate-confirmed appointee would, or even a unilateral permanent appointments that a president can make,” he said.
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