Former Bureaucrat Working With DOGE

Now this is the kind of shake-up that makes the Washington bureaucracy nervous. Leland Dudek, a career official at the Social Security Administration (SSA), was just another name buried deep in the government machine—until he decided to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to root out fraud and waste. The result? He was nearly fired for doing his job too well.

Dudek was placed on administrative leave after cooperating with DOGE, a move that looked an awful lot like an attempt to punish a bureaucrat for daring to help make the system more efficient. But then, in a stunning reversal, the person who really lost their job wasn’t Dudek—it was Acting Social Security Commissioner Michelle King. And in a twist that no one saw coming, Dudek wasn’t just reinstated; he was promoted to her job, taking over the SSA on an interim basis.

So what exactly did Dudek do to warrant this near-firing? Well, according to a now-deleted LinkedIn post, he helped DOGE understand the SSA’s inner workings, identified wasteful spending, and even dared to shift contractor money to hire data scientists for fraud detection.

He worked around the bureaucratic red tape and, as he put it, “bullied agency executives” into getting things done. And for that, the agency tried to throw him out.

But here’s where the story gets even more interesting. The Washington Post reported that King lost her job after refusing to give DOGE access to agency data, but what wasn't widely reported was that SSA higher-ups had already moved against Dudek. According to The Daily Wire, it was Gina Clemons, Deputy Commissioner for Analytics, Review, and Oversight, who placed Dudek on leave—yet she is still employed.

This whole situation highlights the deep resistance within the federal government to even the most basic efficiency measures. There are still a few career officials like Dudek who actually care about cutting waste and protecting taxpayer money, but they’ve been working under leadership more interested in keeping the bureaucracy bloated and self-serving.

That’s why Sen. Mike Lee’s spokesman, Billy Gribbin, cheered Dudek’s promotion, calling for more career civil servants who “possess an encyclopedic knowledge of the problems with their agencies” to be put in charge.

And let’s not forget how we got here. The Social Security Commissioner role was traditionally a six-year term that carried over between administrations—until Joe Biden torched that precedent by firing Trump’s appointee. His replacement, Martin O’Malley, didn’t seem to prioritize taxpayers at all. Instead, he cut a last-minute deal with the agency’s union that locked in telework privileges until 2029—then promptly quit to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee. That left King in charge on an acting basis, until now.

With Dudek now leading the agency and Trump’s official nominee, Frank Bisignano, awaiting Senate confirmation, the SSA is about to face a long-overdue reckoning. This agency, which has long been plagued by fraud—ranging from illegal immigrants using stolen Social Security numbers to people faking disabilities to collect benefits—could finally see some real reforms.