AT A HEARING on February 28th in one of two dozen lawsuits targeting DOGE (Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency), Judge Theodore Chuang grew frustrated. A lawyer from the Department of Justice had just repeated the head-scratching claim in the Maryland courtroom that Elon Musk—despite all appearances—was not running DOGE. Mr Musk, the lawyer insisted, is just a “senior adviser to the president”. The real head of DOGE, he said, is Amy Gleason, a former healthcare executive who was on holiday in Mexico when, on February 25th, the administration named her to that position.