For a man who passed on running for U.S. Senate or governor of Michigan, the Democratic Party’s often-described best communicator is garnering a lot of attention.
Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary and 2020 presidential candidate, returned to Iowa Tuesday for a 75-minute town hall with VoteVets in Cedar Rapids. While not on the ballot, Buttigieg made clear that he believes the country is at an inflection point and that the political work required in the Trump era is not only urgent but deeply personal.
“We have grown less secure as a country. There is no doubt about it,” Buttigieg said, citing the Trump administration’s recent national security lapses, including considering accepting a $400 million aircraft potentially offered by Qatar, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s recent scandal involving texting of sensitive information using the commercially available app Signal. Hegseth has been aggressively trying to kick out and ban military service members. “We’ll be more secure when we honor those who serve, no matter who they are or who they love or how they identify,” Buttigieg said.
He repeatedly framed today’s political challenges as a test of American values, calling on citizens to meet the moment with moral clarity, especially around trust, democracy, and civil rights.
“What makes America great is its ability to wrestle with its darkest demons and come out stronger and better for it,” he said.
He weaved personal stories through his remarks, reflecting on his military service and life as a father to twins Gus and Penelope and husband to Chasten. Buttigieg described his daughter identifying the American flag and his desire to one day explain what it meant to wear that flag into combat and present it to grieving families. “Before they’re old enough for me to lay anything that heavy on them,” he said, “I’ll tell them about the values that that flag represents.”
Buttigieg drew applause for defending transgender military service and for confronting Iowa’s record as the first state to roll back voting rights for trans people. “While I think we do need to revisit some of the things that we have had to say policy-wise that haven’t kept up with the times as a party, that doesn’t mean ever throwing vulnerable people under the bus. Americans may have questions about how to make sure sports are safe and fair, which I get. But Americans also understand that your gender identity shouldn’t affect whether you get to vote. And Americans understand that if you are, for example, a soldier who is doing a good job, who is getting good ratings from commander who is contributing to the readiness of this mission, who is ready to put their life on the line, who happens to be transgender, you ought to be honored and not kicked out of the military. People get that.”
During a wide-ranging Q&A, audience members pressed Buttigieg on the Department of Veterans Affairs budget, habeas corpus, veterans’ mental health, research funding, refugee deportations, and why young Americans feel disillusioned about democracy.
Mike, a veteran working for the VA, asked how to address Trump’s cuts, which he said would worsen care delays. Buttigieg called the cuts both “wrong” and “unpopular,” adding, “You don’t have to be a VA professional to know that if the workload is rising and you’re cutting the personnel, you’re going to have a problem.”
Steven asked about the administration’s threats to habeas corpus—a constitutional right that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. “Where the hell are the libertarians right now?” Buttigieg said, criticizing Republicans who rail against clean air rules as tyrannical but remain silent about fundamental constitutional rights.
Dorothy from Brooklyn pressed Democrats to campaign on what they’re for rather than simply opposing Trump. Buttigieg agreed: “If all my party has to say is let’s go back, I am not here saying we got to make things back the way they were in 2023.”
He added, “The hard truth is if our government, our politics, our society, and our economy were working, we wouldn’t be here. Protoauthoritarian, populist movements don’t just come out of nowhere. They find fertile ground when things are not working.”
Tim, an active-duty Iowa Army National Guard member, asked how Democrats can regain trust as the party of veterans and working people. Buttigieg said Democrats need to meet people where they are and stop treating people’s discontent as invalid. “If someone you love is upset and your response is, ‘You shouldn’t be upset, you should be happy’… how’d that go over?”
He warned that too often, Americans receive information in presorted silos—only seeing what confirms their views or mocks the other side. “That’s the rage bait, click bait phenomenon,” Buttigieg said. He emphasized the importance of appearing in conservative spaces, including Fox News and long-form podcasts, to break through the filter bubbles that divide voters.
Buttigieg has been appearing successfully in right-wing spaces. Recently, he appeared in the so-called “manosphere,” speaking with the crew of the Flagrant podcast for more than three hours. Most importantly, he said, people need to talk to each other offline, in real life. “It happened in my vehicle,” he said of his time in Afghanistan, where service members with radically different backgrounds found common ground through their shared mission. “We’ve got to understand each other.”
Asked by Blake, a University of Iowa student, about Democrats’ weak response to the rollback of trans rights, Buttigieg warned that some in his party think they can win by simply letting Trump fail. “I disagree,” he said. “They may not be good at governing, but they are really good at allocating blame.”
Watch Pete Buttigieg’s town hall in Iowa below.
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