Tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team have been closely scrutinizing various federal departments and agencies for examples of waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending that can be cut, which has led to clashes between DOGE and some career bureaucrats.

That includes former Acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Michelle King, who resigned following a disagreement with DOGE about what records could be accessed, according to Fox News.

King had just ascended to that acting leadership role last month and sources indicate that she has already been replaced by a new acting leader while President Donald Trump's nominee to be the next permanent commissioner awaits the Senate confirmation process.

Trump names SSA chief acting appointee and permanent nominee

The Washington Post, citing three anonymous sources, reported that King resigned from her acting commissioner role at SSA over the weekend after tangling with the DOGE team about their attempts to access purportedly sensitive records and data.

King, a career official at SSA since the mid-1990s who had advanced up the ranks to lead various offices within that agency over the years, was appointed as the acting commissioner by President Trump on his first day in office.

That same day, Trump also nominated Frank Bisignano to be the next Senate-confirmed head of the Social Security Administration, to replace former Commissioner Martin O'Malley, the former Democratic Maryland governor who resigned his position at the end of the Biden-Harris administration.

Mid-level anti-fraud manager elevated to acting leadership position

According to The Post's unnamed sources, President Trump has already selected Leland Dudek to replace King as the acting commissioner until Bisignano completes the Senate confirmation process, though it is unclear how long his tenure in that role will be and that selection has not yet been formally announced.

Dudek, who previously managed SSA's anti-fraud office, has spoken positively on social media about the DOGE team's efforts to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse, but his ascension to the top leadership position from a mid-level management role has caused great consternation among dozens of career bureaucrats who were passed over for the coveted promotion.

Indeed, former Commissioner O'Malley told the outlet of the Trump administration, "At this rate, they will break it. And they will break it fast, and there will be an interruption of benefits."

"It’s a shame the chilling effect it has to disregard 120 senior executive service people," he added of the alleged appointment of Dudek. "To pick an acting commissioner that is not in the senior executive service sends a message that professional people should leave that beleaguered public agency."

Other anti-Trump and anti-Musk partisan activists also raised alarms about the leadership change and the DOGE team's efforts and expressed fearful but largely baseless concerns that sensitive and confidential information about Social Security recipients could be at risk.

White House confirms replacement of acting commissioner

In a statement to The Post, White House spokesman Harrison Fields said, "President Trump has nominated the highly qualified and talented Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration, and we expect him to be swiftly confirmed in the coming weeks."

Of the sudden change in acting leadership at SSA, Fields did not confirm that Dudek was Trump's appointee but instead vaguely intimated, "In the meantime, the agency will be led by a career Social Security anti-fraud expert as the acting commissioner."

The spokesman added in an apparent dig toward the upset career officials who'd been bypassed, "President Trump is committed to appointing the best and most qualified individuals who are dedicated to working on behalf of the American people, not to appease the bureaucracy that has failed them for far too long."