Speaking during a press conference about a question regarding the massive headache of an outage at Newark Liberty International Airport, President Donald Trump ended up roasting “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg, the former Transportation Secretary under the Biden Administration, for not updating the air control software when it was first needed.
That came when the Thursday, May 8, press conference was opened up to questions after the president commented on his trade deal with the United Kingdom, with a reporter asking him about the administration’s plan to update the air traffic control software used nationwide, a plan that has been under scrutiny since the outage at the Newark airport.
Responding, President Trump first commented on the 2020 election, saying that he was ready to roll out a new system, but that the plan was thwarted by what happened in 2020. He said, “I was all set, before we had the rigged election, to give out a brand new, gorgeous system to one company that was going to do the whole thing.”
Continuing, President Trump hinted at what company was involved in doing it, insisting that the best software was ready to be rolled out and some highly competent people would have been on the job. He said, “One of the best companies in the world that you know very well — you know, there are three or four of them that do it.”
He then turned to attacking Buttigieg for not have “a clue” about what he was meant to do, which turned into the president mocking Mayor Pete’s penchant for ostentatious riding a bike to work, saying, “And when they took over, Buttigieg — who has no clue — you know, he drives to work on his bicycle with his, in all fairness, with his husband on the back — which is a nice loving relationship.”
President Trump then roasted the Democrats for putting incompetent persons like Mayor Pete and Rep. Jasmine Crockett in charge, saying, “But he didn’t have a clue. This guy didn’t have a clue; and he’s actually a contender for president, between him and [Jasmine] Crockett. You can have that party.” Watch him here:
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Collin Rugg, posting the clip on X, said, “JUST IN: President Trump jokes about Pete Buttigieg riding his bike with his “loving” husband on the back of it. Lmao.” Agreeing with him, Juanita Broaderick noted that Trump is terrific at trolling, saying, “Nobody trolls like Trump. “Bootyjuice” was a joke…. Appointed because he was gay.”
In any case, Trump also sounded off on Mayor Pete in a post on Truth Social, arguing that he was an incompetent Transportation Secretary, saying, “Air Traffic problems caused by the incompetent Biden Administration, as headed by, in this case, a total novice and political hack, Pete B. I WILL FIX IT!!!”
President Trump’s Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, slammed Buttigieg as well, doing so on X. He said, “Pete Buttigieg’s PR tour is a joke! Within 2 years of him signing a 15-year contract, that has not been used to lay any fiber, we are having massive outages in the busiest airspace. He increased the air traffic controller shortage to pre-COVID levels. But when he left office the FAA was still short 3K air traffic controllers. He didn’t do anything to fix the root causes of this dangerous shortage. He was busy renaming cockpit to “flight deck” & finding racist roads. More concerned with equity & social justice than innovation & safety. President Trump and I are determined to FIX the problem. Stay tuned on Thursday for the biggest and most important announcement in DOT history! #FixTheSystem”