In the aftermath Thursday of a plane crash that claimed more than 60 lives in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump lashed out at former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg during a press briefing.
“He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of (expletive),” Trump claimed Thursday during a press conference. “You know how badly everything’s run since he ran the Department of Transportation. He’s a disaster.”
Buttigieg, in a post on X, responded Thursday, calling Trump’s comments despicable.
“As families grieve, Trump should be leading, not lying,” he wrote. “We put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch. President Trump now oversees the military and the FAA. One of his first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe.
“Time for the President to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again,” Buttigieg added.
What happened in Washington, DC?
A passenger jet with 64 people aboard collided with an Army helicopter above Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Wednesday night, and a major search operation was ongoing Thursday in the nearby Potomac River, USA Today reported.
Authorities said American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was preparing to land at the airport before it “collided in midair” with the helicopter around 9 p.m.
Who is Pete Buttigieg?
Buttigieg, 43, a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, served as former President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary.
Buttigieg was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1982. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard University. He also studied philosophy, politics, and economics at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, according to Ballotpedia.
Where was Buttigieg mayor?
In 2011, he won the South Bend mayoral election with 74% of the vote, Ballotpedia said. At the age of 29, he was the youngest mayor of a city with more than 100,000 residents and served through 2020.
Trump’s claim: Buttigieg ‘was a disaster as mayor’ and ‘ran his city into the ground’
Trump claimed that Buttigieg was a disastrous mayor of South Bend and ran the city into the ground, but according to previous IndyStar reporting, that is not the case.
Not everyone thought everything during his term went smoothly, but according to IndyStar interviews from 2019 with local government officials, political experts, neighborhood activists, business leaders and tourism officials, Buttigieg had South Bend headed in the right direction as their mayor.
Buttigieg was the mayor of the Indiana city for eight years. He increased economic development, unemployment rates went down during his term, and the population began to slowly rise after decades of decline.
His harshest criticisms were concerns about the redevelopment projects leading to gentrification and his handling of racial tensions with the South Bend police department.
What are Buttigieg’s ties to Michigan?
He owns a home in Traverse City with his spouse, Chasten, and children and currently resides there.
Buttigieg is taking a “serious look” at a run for an open U.S. Senate seat in Michigan in 2026. Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring at the end of his term.
Presidential aspirations
Buttigieg ran as a Democratic candidate for president in 2020. Buttigieg won the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses, but later suspended his presidential campaign and endorsed Joe Biden.
USA Today and Katie Wiseman from the Indianapolis Star contributed reporting
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: President Trump and Pete Buttigieg trade words after DC collision
