Buttigieg criticizes both Trump and Democrats in sweeping foreign policy speech

Pete Buttigeig.
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a Democratic presidential candidate, stole some of President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden's spotlight on Tuesday with a sweeping foreign policy speech at Indiana University.

Buttigieg's speech was light on hard policy details, and heavy on broad ideas, though that was his intention. He did not, he said, mean to "deliver a full Buttigieg doctrine," but instead sought to lay out why "the world today needs America more than ever, but only if America can be at her best." Buttigieg then criticized the Trump administration's approach to foreign relations, saying that it "hardly had a foreign policy at all." But he also made clear that the Democrats haven't been much better at creating a consistent foreign policy during the 37-year-old's lifetime.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.