There’s something about Pete Buttigieg. You remember him. He’s the former Secretary of Transportation who waited weeks to show up in a small Ohio town poisoned by a toxic train derailment in 2023. And when he did show up, locals and the Internet made fun of his choice to wear upscale leather dress shoes rather than boots suited to walking around a clean-up site.
Wounded, Buttigieg said Republicans were just hypocrites anyway who don’t know the names of discount clothing stores that real Americans shop at. “You think Tucker Carlson knows the difference between a T.J. Maxx and a Kohl’s,” he sniped during media interviews about the backlash at the time.
But does Pete really know anything about T.J. Maxx clothing? After all, Vogue lovingly profiled him in 2019 when he was still just the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Check out how the fashion magazine described him:
“In person, Buttigieg’s style is amiable and controlled. He speaks, like a newscaster, in lucid paragraphs, with a solid baritone and boxed-in decorum. He seems to live in white shirts and pressed slacks—it’s his dress even now, around the house—and wears his hair in the same tame coif as Mike Pence, who was elected Indiana’s governor the year he was sworn in as mayor.”
What is that “something” about Mayor Pete? It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of “inauthentic,” or “ersatz,” or “counterfeit.” You can’t escape the impression that you’re watching someone perform being normal. There’s a robotic quality to his manner, his look, and the way he carries himself. It’s like the plot of some 1950s b-grade sci-fi movie where humanoid aliens land on earth and try to blend in by saying awkward things like, “I am a normal Earth man, I assure you.”
And then there’s Chasten, his husband. The two of them look like the gay version of a Mormon-wear catalog, and they seem to be aware of it, and even revel in it. The impression from pictures of them together is that they’re trying to show a version of the buttoned-up 1950s but with gay marriage and adopted twins.
President Donald Trump has picked up on that je-ne-sais-quoi about Pete, and remarked on it during a White House event. Trump contrasted the members of the Republican Party with the Democrats, and gave some examples (including ratchet House Rep. Jasmine Crockett) of the “talent” on the blue side of the aisle.
In his trademark drily humorous tone, Trump noted that Buttigieg rides around on a bicycle built for two along with hubby Chasten, which Trump called “a nice, loving relationship.” But you can hear the silent giggle.
Here’s what X posters had to say.
It’s the humor that Democrats hate. Trump is genuinely funny, and they can’t stand it.
