Pete Buttigieg ran the Transportation Department for four years and had over one trillion dollars to spend.
But America's skies nearly collapsed on Buttigieg's watch.
Now what he just told a crowd of Montana Democrats he did instead will make your blood boil.
What $40 Million Bought Pete Buttigieg
Standing in front of a packed crowd in Butte on Sunday, Buttigieg delivered his infrastructure defense.
He pointed to the Missoula Airport baggage claim – a terminal renovation he helped fund for $40 million.
"Magnificent," he called it.
He pointed to wildlife crossings on Highway 93 near Bigfork.
"They tell me that we started pouring the concrete for them a few weeks ago," he said.
Concrete that still isn't finished.
He mentioned that air traffic controller hiring went up and that roadway fatalities went down.
What he didn't mention was the timeline.
Traffic fatalities under his watch hit a 16-year high in 2021 – 42,915 Americans dead, a 10.5% spike in a single year – before eventually drifting back toward pre-pandemic levels that existed before he took the job.
And the air traffic control system he "modernized" was, per the Department of Transportation's own Inspector General, still failing to deliver the vision of a transformed system after $15 billion spent.
What 67 Dead Americans Has to Say About His Record
The FAA's Inspector General said the agency's efforts "have not delivered the vision of a transformed and modernized air traffic system" – this after the $5 billion specifically allocated for ATC upgrades in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The Government Accountability Office found that more than one-third of FAA systems were obsolete, lacked spare parts, and could fail at any time.
In January 2023, the FAA issued its first nationwide ground stop since 9/11 – a system outage that stranded thousands of passengers.
Aviation industry trade groups sent an urgent letter to Buttigieg's DOT in April 2024 warning that at current hiring pace, it could take 90 years to fully staff critical New York air traffic control centers.
https://x.com/johnkonrad/status/2056194597378797807“>https://x.com/johnkonrad/status/2056194597378797807
Ninety years.
Meanwhile, federal records show Buttigieg's DOT cut roughly 400 equity and DEI grant checks worth more than $80 billion over four years – a sum exceeding half of what DOT normally spends in an entire fiscal year – while controllers worked in towers full of equipment nobody made spare parts for anymore.
At one industry meeting, Buttigieg reportedly told executives that upgrading air traffic control would just allow airlines to fly more planes – "and so why would that be in his interest?"
He was worried about airline profits while controllers worked understaffed in obsolete towers.
The Tour He's Really on Now
Buttigieg isn't in Montana to answer for any of that.
He's rebuilding his brand for 2028 – stumping for a state campaign finance ballot initiative and hoping the Missoula baggage terminal counts as a legacy.
Here's the math.
Sean Duffy – the Transportation Secretary who actually cares about aviation safety – just secured $12.5 billion through the Big Beautiful Bill specifically to overhaul FAA infrastructure.
That's the money doing what Buttigieg spent four years and $80 billion in DEI grants not doing.
The baggage claim looks great, Pete.
Tell that to the families of 67 Americans whose flight went down because the men guiding it in were using technology from the 1970s.
Sources:
- Department of Transportation Inspector General, "FAA Efforts Have Not Delivered the Vision of a Transformed and Modernized Air Traffic System," DOT OIG Report, 2024.
- Jordan Hansen, "Buttigieg speaks on Montana Plan, hosts town hall in Butte," Daily Montanan, May 17, 2026.
- New York Post Editorial, "Pete Buttigieg's DOT Spent $80 Billion on DEI Grants, Delayed Air Traffic Control Upgrades," New York Post, July 21, 2025.
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "Early Estimate of Motor Vehicle Traffic Fatalities, 2021," NHTSA, May 2022.
- Government Accountability Office, FAA Air Traffic Control Modernization Report, 2024.
