In late November, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) quietly disbanded months ahead of schedule, with senior officials confirming that the agency “no longer exists” in any centralized form. Its end marks not only the collapse of a widely publicized initiative but one of the greatest missed opportunities of the Trump administration. At a moment when artificial intelligence was transforming nearly every major industry, the federal government had a rare chance to reinvent itself. Instead, it stepped backward.

When DOGE launched in January 2025, President Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk — a global technology figure — as the program’s celebrity face. With its rhetoric of trillion-dollar savings and sweeping modernization, DOGE could have become the most ambitious public-sector inn

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