President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to connect their services with America.gov, the government portal he introduced Sept. 29. He said the site would eventually act on users’ behalf, filling out applications and renewals and applying for passports by early 2027. The portal is presented as one digital entry point for government services, including student-loan and Medicare eligibility checks.
A single doorway to services
America.gov aims to help users navigate government systems and complete tasks such as changing a government name or home address. At its launch, Trump called it the “ultimate product.” “With America.gov, the federal government no longer stands in your way, and it stands only at your service. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re simplifying it. We’re glamorizing it. We’re making it what it should be.”
Joe Gebbia, the United States’ chief design officer and architect of America.gov, called the portal a “concierge to navigate the government” in an interview with Fox News. “Don’t think of it as a website; it’s more of a conversation that you start with the government to try to get access to the answers you need,” he said.
The site was trained on 29,000 U.S. government websites and 800 million pages, Gebbia said. The General Services Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, and the National Design Studio co-created and run it. Trump established the National Design Studio as a White House initiative in 2025.
During a demonstration, Gebbia showed how the portal could guide users to answers and next steps. That could include a checklist with links for completing a name change at the state level. The federal portal is meant to direct people to services and information across government systems.
Privacy claims and chatbot limits
At the launch, Trump said the site was built with privacy and security “totally in mind.” He said it wouldn’t collect or store personal information, conversations would disappear when users left, and “everything stays totally private.” He also said the site “in theory” couldn’t be hacked.
Jessica Ji, a senior research analyst at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, described the portal as a “familiar interface” for navigating government websites. “I can see it being quite useful as a landing page for people trying to navigate specific systems and not knowing where to start,” she told USA TODAY.
Ji challenged the security assurances. AI chatbots have weaknesses, she said, and “It’s basically impossible to tell what those weaknesses are before they are discovered.” Giving an AI system private data and the ability to act for users raises the risk, she added: “I think you are increasing the attack surface quite a bit.”
Public tests and planned expansion
Reddit users shared examples of the chatbot producing random messages after simple requests, including “Play Minecraft.” USA TODAY submitted the same request and got a similar response. Users also described spelling errors, unproven claims, and confusing replies on the site.
The executive order directs federal agencies to integrate their services with America.gov. Trump said the portal would be able to fill out applications and renewals and apply for passports on users’ behalf by early 2027. Those features would move the system beyond directing people to government information and toward carrying out tasks for them.