The Keith Edwards Show - Pete Buttigieg Mocks Trump Over Market Meltdown on Jon Stewart’s Podcast

Episode Date: April 11, 2025

Keith Edwards discusses Pete Buttigieg's appearance on Jon Stewart's podcast, where he criticized Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies that triggered market instability, highlighting the real-world consequences for American workers and families. Buttigieg argued that the chaos isn't accidental but a deliberate strategy to centralize power around Trump, likening it to governing by "king" rather than coherent policy.

Wow. Pete Buttigieg was on John Stewart's podcast. It came out a couple hours ago. And first off, he's in a... Pete Buttigieg has a beard. I was not ready for that. But secondly, Pete Buttigieg is asked about Donald Trump and the concentration of power going as far as to allude that he's a king. And this is just, I think, one of the best conversations I've heard in a long time. This is a little longer clip, but I want to play the whole thing through because, honestly, I just think it's all really important. And it's nice to know there's a Democrat out there who actually understands what is happening. Because I feel like our leaders are too far and few between. I imagine it's got to be mind-blowingly frustrating to watch shit like that go down. You know, stock markets tanking $10 trillion going out. And the Democrats are like, we can't even wear a tan suit. If we wear a tan suit, the world goes bonkers. It's the lead story for a week.

My favorite was RFK, he was talking about the huge cuts to health and human services and all the people and how they had to rehire people and it goes, we always knew that 20% of those job cuts were going to be wrong. Part of the plan was always we were just going to rehire 20% of the people. And you're like, what if you took an extra two days? Like that's what I can't figure out. What is the rush? It's been two months. what about trying to negotiate trade deals prior to killing the hostage and then asking for ransom?

I don't get it. There's a logic here too, right? On the trade deals, especially, if you make it completely chaotic, then the only organizing principle is the man himself. And then all that matters is which country, which industry, which company got to the man and convinced him or flattered him or whatever it took got him to. give them some mercy. So the countries are all deciding, right? I mean, if you think about it, this is part of how consolidating power works. Like, there is a, there is a sort of logic to this,

right? The more messy you make it, the more like they can't appeal to you saying like, oh, this, you published this guidance on how the tariffs were going to work. And if you really interpret it the right way, you should give us a break. It's going to be, I'm going to find Trump. I'm going to find him. I'm going to appeal. I, whether it's a country, a company, or an industry, And think of a way to say, you ought to make an exception for us. And the more it works that way, the more it's total chaos, except you get to the man, you get to the king, right, the more power he personally has. But I've got to believe, first of all, obviously, that's a terrible way to make policy.

And it's terribly unfair, obviously. Really? But also, like, I got to believe definitely most liberals, I think most conservatives, thoughtful conservatives I've ever talked to, and any liberal. gets that literally the entire point of this country is that we don't have a king, that we don't have some guy who, how he feels in the morning or what he decides to do, or whether he got off the wrong side of the bed this morning is going to decide your fate. But actually, we have rules and we have things we all have to negotiate over and fight over,

and there's winners and losers, but we come together in this process. Now, to your earlier point about people who look at this in Trugg, I think the process we inherited sucks. Let's be clear, this is not about going back to what we had before. When you destroy something, you destroy everything that was good and everything that was bad about it. And that's part of what I'm thinking about as I think about the giant federal bureaucracy that I operated in for four years trying to get stuff done as a secretary of transportation, right? I'm not here to say that everything should be put back the way it was in 2024 or 2015 or 2000, for that matter. It is maddeningly difficult to get something actually built in this country. It is difficult across the federal government to properly reward your best performers and to remove your worst performers.

Like, these things are real, right? I'm not saying they're not. and to incentivize progress. Totally, right? These are real problems. The challenge now becomes, especially for my party, which is transfixed in horror by what we see all around us, is to have an answer that's better than,

this is terrible, let's just go back to where we were before. Better than nobles and oblige and the right of kings, you're saying. We need a process that's not necessarily the whims of the individual. So smart of Pete Buttigieg. I mean, obviously the American people, the ones at least who voted, feel like, the government isn't working for them. And I kind of agree.

But what Donald Trump is doing is saying, well, government doesn't work. Let's just destroy it. Isn't going to work for them either. And I think Pete's right. We have to be the party of solutions. We can't be the party of go back to the way things have been. I mean,

that literally is make America great again, just a different flavor. And so I love that he's saying that. I think we need more people to be putting that message out there. I'm interested to hear what you all think. But also there's a second part that I want to show you where Pete is asked about the policy ideas of the Trump administration. Watch how he responds.

The one thing that I've been almost more shocked at by anything is an inability to coherently communicate what the idea is and what the plan is other than everything's unfair to the United States and we're not going to take it. We're not going to be the world's whipping boy, even though for the moment. part, this is the world we created post-World War II and police. But no longer will we be the Patsy. I've heard very little in the way that you're describing now, consistent logic. Why bother with that? Why tell the people? It's not their problem. They don't view an honest conversation about the finer points of policy is something they need to slow down and do.

they're right, move fast and break shit, do it our way. And if some people get hurt along the way, okay, but it's all on the service of the bigger vision. But I don't think, honestly, I don't think they believe that they have to justify what they're doing to the American people, even to the people who voted for them. They just don't think that that's their problem. Why do you think they're so hostile to the media, right? Are you talking about the fake news, lame stream media? Well, yeah, right? I mean, there's very little interest in working through, you know, one person admitted a mistake, right, where they like sent the wrong. guy to El Salvador.

Yes. And what did they do? They fired the guy who admitted it. Bye. Or the lawyer who admitted it. I don't know if he's a man or woman, but that person got fired, right? So as they screw up along the way, they fire the wrong people at the national, the NNSA that keeps our nuclear weapons safe.

And then they hire them back real quick. They accidentally send a buyout email to all the air traffic controllers in the middle of the air traffic control shortage, right? They, uh, right? They, they send the battle plans to the, the wrong guy on the wrong text app, right? And they randomly put a tariff on a country. It doesn't have anybody. It's not even a country. It's just an island with some penguins. Like, these, these screw-ups are not something that causes introspection. Right. So like I said, that

podcast interview just came out a little bit ago today. And so you should, I would, I recommend listening to the whole thing I did. It's awesome. It's so good. And if you like the video, please hit like in the video. If you're not subscribed, consider subscribing. And I just want to give a shout out to my sister who it's her birthday today unfortunately she passed away um almost 15 years ago and but just want to honor her memory her name was allison and today she would have been 37 so i love you allison happy birthday and i'll see you soon