Pete Buttigieg thinks Donald Trump’s controversial actions as president have completely ruined America’s global reputation.
The former transportation secretary appeared on Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show” on Wednesday where CBS played a clip of Buttigieg as a freshman at Harvard asking a panel if the 9/11 terrorist attacks would change how Americans view their role in the world. Colbert then asked the politician how he views America’s role in the world today. Without hesitation, Buttigieg answered: “Diminished.”
“Diminished, sadly. When I was a student, it was just understood that the U.S. was the leading nation in the world,” he explained. “Not just the biggest, not just the richest, not just the most powerful, but the country that people look to because our values as well as because of our strength.”
Buttigieg continued: “And now under Donald Trump, there are by some measures more people around the world who trust China to do the right thing than the United States.”
He went on to say that Americans should be concerned with the country’s standing with foreign countries.
“That should bother every patriotic American because the reality is when people do not trust the United States, that affects us,” Buttigieg said. “You don’t have to be a foreign policy buff to be concerned about that or to be affected by that. That affects everything from our security as a country to the prices we pay at the store.
He also noted that it’s going to take a lot of repairing to restore the U.S. back into the good graces of other nations.
“It will take a generation to establish the credibility and trust that the U.S. had, it almost seemed by right back when I was a student showing up for freshman year,” Buttigieg concluded.
