For the past several weeks, Trump has been relentlessly insulting Pete Buttigieg for…riding a bicycle? After multiple instances, brought up randomly in rambling press junkets, the former Transportation Secretary has responded with one perfect tweet.
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Earlier this month, instead of addressing his own administration’s failures with air travel safety, Trump predictably blamed the prior administration. “Buttigieg who has no clue… he drives to work on his bicycle with his husband on the back which is a nice loving relationship,” he said. “But he didn’t have a clue. This guy… didn’t have a clue.”
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As far as anyone can tell, there’s no evidence that Buttigieg ever rode a bicycle tandem with his husband Chasten (and that has to be the dumbest fact check of all time). Trump apparently made that comment just to bring up that Buttigieg has a husband. The classic: ‘He’s gay! Isn’t that hilarious?’
A week later, while in Qatar for totally non-corrupt reasons, Trump brought the bicycle up yet again. “Pete Buttigieg… he goes bicycling to work,” he said. “He takes a bicycle to work. Can you believe— he’s running the biggest air system in the world, and he takes a bicycle to work. What a— and they say he’s going to run for president. I don’t see it.”
It’s a stretch to suggest that taking a bike to work (instead of a plane, apparently) has anything to do with the current problems facing the airline industry—to say the very least. Since taking office, Trump has fired hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration officials and Elon Musk’s DOGE also reportedly attempted to gut air traffic controllers specifically. And months after the fatal DC crash, the most high profile airline accident in recent memory, Trump would rather cast blame than explain how his administration has spent the time making aviation safer.
Buttigieg may not be riding with Chasten, but the ride or die internet has his back.
But the best (and most succinct) response has to go to Buttigieg. Shortly after Trump’s comments in Qatar, Buttigieg posted a photo of a picturesque bike trail and wrote, “It’s a perfect Up North Michigan morning. Good day for a bike ride, eh?”
Back in his role as Transportation Secretary, Buttigieg had much more to say about air safety. Last April, he asked Congress for a budget to hire 2,000 air traffic controllers in addition to the 1,800 that year and the 1,500 hired previously. Republicans in the House denied his budget request.
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