A top Trump cost-cutter's husband quietly landed a federal health job weeks after layoffs tore through the very office that hired him.
Michael Gleason, whose wife Amy Gleason served as acting administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency, started work in May 2025 as a senior adviser in the Health and Human Services Department's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. Ethics disclosures obtained by the outlet show he came on board just 33 days after layoffs swept through HHS.
The division, which conducts health policy research and analysis, had been gutted by DOGE-driven layoffs. According to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg, his position didn't exist under the Biden administration, and his arrival raised eyebrows inside the division given how deep the cuts had gone just weeks earlier.
Michael Gleason also lacks the credentials typical of the office, the report said. Other leaders there hold advanced degrees and policy research experience, while he has neither. A Brigham Young University spokesperson told Bloomberg he attended the school for about a year in the early 1980s but never earned a degree there, even though his since-removed LinkedIn profile listed BYU as his education.
Before entering government, he described himself on LinkedIn as a financial services consultant who "designed and implemented advanced algorithmic futures and crypto trading systems." He previously spent a decade selling software at Allscripts, a health tech company where Amy Gleason also once worked.
None of the more than 90 reports the division has put out during Trump's second term lists him as a contributor. People familiar with his work said he's been involved in a behind-the-scenes effort to use an artificial intelligence tool to sort through comments on regulatory dockets.
HHS spokeswoman Emily Hilliard brushed off questions from Bloomberg. "The fake news media's random probes tell us we're right on target," she told Bloomberg, adding that the Trump administration is "bringing the best and brightest to HHS."
The White House and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where Amy Gleason now holds a leadership role, did not respond to Bloomberg's questions. Neither Gleason responded to repeated requests for comment.
HHS headcount has fallen 22 percent since January 2025, according to Office of Personnel Management data cited by Bloomberg. Amy Gleason's role at DOGE remains under legal scrutiny, with the Supreme Court set to take up a case that includes whether she can be deposed about her work.