Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
Pete Buttigieg on Trump Tariffs, Taxing Billionaires, and Republican Gays
23 Apr 2025
YERRR – former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg came on to talk about fixing America’s crumbling infrastructure, fixing the Democratic Party, & his political aspirations. He gets into policy, public perception, parenting, his coming out story, and what it takes to run for president. All that and more on this week’s episode of FLAGRANT. INDULGE. 00:00 Intro 00:32 White Lotus recap 3:11 Commercial space travel + Air travel is unbelievably safe 5:37 Taxing the ultra wealthy + Corporate tax avoidance 11:17 Tariffs are a tax + Reducing incentives to hoard money 15:05 Urban decay, Corporate profiteering & Wealth tax 23:12 What would Pete do differently with tariffs? 28:26 Finger-wagging, Compassion + Dems’ direction 33:59 AOC + Bernie messaging & Policies 38:14 DOGE is about power not efficiency 44:56 Huge transportation projects in NYC 48:50 Power play + Limits on power 54:00 Where do our taxes go? 1:00:47 Best results aren’t seen + Slow progression = bureaucracy 1:08:11 Perception of Dems’ states + Facts are debated 1:15:20 Stocks & politicians + Misunderstanding data 1:19:14 Willing to correct mistakes 1:22:00 NBA playoffs time 1:23:55 Echo chambers + Courting some controversy 1:32:28 What do Americans really need? 1:38:57 Right to choose and tax cuts + Address our feelings 1:41:31 What would Pete do? 1:45:46 Coming out, “Just In Case” letter + Radical Empathy 1:59:42 Reaction to coming out + White boy fun 2:04:40 Telling parents was not easy + Challenges 2:11:30 Fatherhood 2:19:20 Raising Black children 2:22:39 If Pete runs for president, what are the costs? 2:26:58 What drew Pete into public service? 2:32:46 Is America ready for a gay president? 2:34:53 How do keep the US at no. 1? A1 not AI 2:41:14 Addressing the wage gap + Poverty 2:46:17 Tax Cuts being passed right now Follow Us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/flagrant/about Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
What's up, guys? Today we are joined by the Democrat's secret weapon. He's an Afghan war veteran and the former secretary of transportation. He's also one of the first gay men to run for president.
And today he's here to explain how he kept the planes in the sky, how billionaires legally dodged taxes, why Trump's new tariffs could be hurt in America, what he ate in Afghanistan that made him gay, and most importantly, why every Republican national convention... Grindr is on fire. Give it up for Pete Buttigieg.
You started a conversation when you sat down on the couch and said that Lachlan should have died. Which is not the first thing we often hear from a, you know, future president. He said, Lachlan should have died in White Lotus. Talk to us.
Like, this is a big time, you know. Yeah, I hate to say it. I love him. He's a good kid, right? Yeah. But just from a narrative perspective, right?
And having, like... From doing that to his brother. Yeah, and like... Jesus, he just... No, I mean...
You know, I think the dad has to sit with Chasten. My husband and I have been talking about this a lot. The dad should have to sit with, like, what he did. The guilt, yes. And there were so many parallels to what happens with Tanya where he's, like, floating, right, when he seems like he's dying or maybe sort of dead. Yeah.
I think just story-wise that otherwise, you know, I don't have a lot of notes for this year's White Lotus. I mean, it was incredible.
I guess the one thing would be does anything really happen to the ultra-wealthy?
maybe that's maybe that's what he's trying to showcase which is kind of what always they always get away with it yeah that's true yeah even the kid even the kid yeah um yeah because by the time they're on the boat it's like none of that even happened right yeah and then the poor security guards that are guarding the guy they die yeah yeah no one talks about them they were mean to what's his name yeah yeah
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