Wired reports:

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have repeatedly affirmed Musk’s leadership of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But according to a new court filing from the White House, the administrator of DOGE isn’t Elon Musk after all. Who is? No one knows. The White House won’t tell the public, an administration lawyer has reportedly said he had no idea, and even people who work for the US DOGE Service can’t get a straight answer.

On Monday evening, Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration, claimed Musk wasn’t actually in charge of the so-called department he has championed for months. Fisher issued a sworn statement in a lawsuit brought by the state of New Mexico and 13 other Democratic attorneys general accusing Musk of exercising authority beyond the scope of his role. Rather than serving as the DOGE administrator or an employee of DOGE at all, Fisher said, Musk’s formal role is “senior advisor” to the president with “no greater authority than other senior White House advisors.” This could make Musk’s authority and standing at USDS legally murky—especially as a number of lawsuits embroil the organization’s activities.

The statement has also compounded confusion at USDS, formerly called the US Digital Service and rebranded as the US DOGE Service on January 20. Multiple legacy USDS employees tell WIRED they have no idea who the acting administrator is, despite requesting their identity multiple times.

Musk announced that he would lead DOGE shortly after Trump won the presidential election last year and has spent the weeks since Trump took office championing DOGE’s work on X, the media platform that he owns, and spreading misinformation about the role and expenditures of numerous government agencies targeted by DOGE. In a recent Oval Office appearance, Trump referred to DOGE as Musk’s “team.” If Musk is not serving as the administrator, his leadership appears to be unofficial and in name only. But this would leave it unclear who the official administrator actually is—or whether the office is vacant.

This isn’t a trivial matter. The executive order establishing DOGE plainly states, “There shall be a USDS Administrator established in the Executive Office of the President who shall report to the White House Chief of Staff.” It goes on to say that an organization called the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization will be set up within the USDS, to be headed by the administrator and “dedicated to advancing the President’s 18-month DOGE agenda.”

According to Fisher’s statement, Musk has nothing to do with any of this. [Continue reading…]