Maggie Haberman Calls BS On Trump-Musk Claim Of Transparency: DOGE ‘Operating in Great Secrecy’
CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman told anchor Kaitlan Collins that President Donald Trump’s claims of transparency in Elon Musk’s DOGE activities don’t jibe with the “secrecy” under which they’ve been operating.
The Elon Musk “chainsaw” approach to government has sparked confusion as Musk doubled down on the emails that sparked a revolt at various agencies — a demand for five “bullet points” on what they did the past week, or else.
There has also been confusion over who is actually in charge of DOGE — until it emerged Tuesday that career official Amy Gleason has been given the “acting” title of DOGE administrator.
On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins asked Haberman what it says that it took so long to get an answer to this question — and they both agreed it wasn’t “maximal transparency”:
COLLINS: Maggie, as we’ve been looking into this, and talking about how long it took to find out who was actually the administrator here, what does it say to you, in why they waited so long to reveal this person’s name?
MAGGIE HABERMAN: Well, a couple of things, Kaitlan. And I apologize for looking down. But as you know, better than anybody, the work does not stop right now.
I think that they, despite their professed commitment to transparency, have been operating in great secrecy around DOGE, and what it is up to, and what Elon Musk’s group is doing.
And I think that they were trying to avoid being pinned down in the course of legal cases. And then, I think it became clear that that was not going to be sustainable. And so, they went ahead, and they said, it’s this — you know, this person who is a career person, Amy Gleason.
She’s worked in the previous Trump administration. For a little bit. She worked in the beginning of the Biden administration. And she is not somebody who people are going to dwell on. She’s also described as acting. And we know from Trump’s previous term that he likes calling people, Acting, even if it’s not a job that’s Senate-confirmed, and doesn’t require an Acting title.
So I make of it that this is — this is another moment, when they have been forced to say something, because there were such a crush of stories around it. These are things that could be dealt with on the front-end more easily, and just are not.
COLLINS: Yes, I think that’s a good point, in terms of the fact that they are calling her as Acting. This is not a Senate-confirmed position. But it does matter, because–
HABERMAN: Right.
COLLINS: –it could determine whether this person has to file a financial disclosure form that’s public, whether or not they are named in lawsuits here. I mean, essentially, this means that Elon Musk, if on paper he is not technically leading DOGE, will not be that person, presumably.
HABERMAN: No, that’s right. I mean, it appears to shield Elon Musk from certain levels of disclosure that he might otherwise have.
We already know, he is a Special Government employee. He does have to file a financial disclosure. But they are not planning to make that public, as far as we know.
We do not know whether President Trump has granted him a conflicts of interest waiver, although I suspect that if he had, we would have heard about it. And we know that Musk has many companies that have contracts with different government agencies, or permit issues with different government agencies.
The President just keeps saying, Well, if there’s a conflict, we’re not going to let him do it. But I don’t know how the public would know that, or know that that was indeed being adhered to.
COLLINS: Yes. And for the pledges of maximal transparency, it’s actually taken a bit of time to get a detail like this one.
HABERMAN: Right.
Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.
