Elon Musk was surrounded by top allies and a DOGE engineer on Thursday night as he explained what the White House DOGE office is doing.
One person was notably absent from the Fox News interview: the official the White House has said is actually leading DOGE.
Acting DOGE office administrator Amy Gleason was not among the seven people who surrounded Musk. Her name wasn’t even mentioned once.
Top allies, including Steve Davis, a longtime Musk associate, joined the world’s richest man publicly as DOGE team representatives for the first time.
Airbnb cofounder Joe Gebbia and former Morgan Stanley banker Anthony Armstrong were also on hand. Musk brought along Aram Moghaddass, a DOGE team engineer.
Edward Coristine, who once went by the nickname “Big Balls” online, did not join. Neither did Marko Elez, who resigned after the revelation of inflammatory posts before Musk and Vice President JD Vance pushed for him to return.
The DOGE office has for weeks been the dominant story of President Donald Trump’s first 100 days of his second term. Working alongside the DOGE office, the Trump administration has implemented mass firings targeting thousands of employees.
Musk, who is officially a senior White House advisor, spoke to Fox News about, among other things, the DOGE office. It’s the latest example of how Musk, the White House, and others have blurred the lines of his purview.
Gleason and another White House official have declared in federal court that Musk is not a DOGE office employee, let alone the initiative’s leader. One of Gleason’s declarations came in a fight over whether DOGE is subject to federal records laws.
At issue is whether Trump’s order to rebrand the existing US Digital Service as DOGE shields the office from Freedom of Information Act requests. If that is the case, the DOGE office’s records would be sealed for years after Trump leaves office. If not, the DOGE office would be immediately subject to disclosure requests. A former top National Archives official previously told BI that, in his view, DOGE should be subject to FOIA.
Nonetheless, Musk continues to act as and as been treated as DOGE’s de facto leader. Multiple lawsuits regarding DOGE’s actions have sought to clarify Tesla’s CEO role. At times, even Department of Justice lawyers have struggled to describe it.
Federal unions and Democratic attorneys general have fought in court to stop the firings. They have secured some victories, including a ruling requiring the Trump administration to rehire some probationary workers, who usually have less than two years in their current role. Some probationary employees who have returned to work previously told Business Insider that they are being paid to do virtually nothing as the legal fight over their status continues.
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a question about why Gleason didn’t participate in the interview.
