The next president must reimagine, not just restore, the administrative state

Photo: Elon Musk speaking at the 2025 CPAC at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland – February 20, 2025. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0. Commentary article by Tom Shoop, former Editor in Chief, Government Executive. Defense One – May 4, 2026.

Careful calibration—not chainsaws—can produce a government that solves problems instead of getting in the way.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently addressed the issue of what happens after the Trump administration’s assault on America’s administrative state is over. The work needed to restore the country’s governing capacity, he argued, involves more than just putting the bureaucratic Humpty Dumpty back together again. […]

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