Former United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg spoke at the Arlington Theatre on April 22 to over 2,000 attendees, including UC Santa Barbara students and Santa Barbara residents. He spoke about his life in government and what he thinks needs to be done in the midst of the second Trump term.

After dropping out of the 2020 presidential election race, Buttigieg was named the 19th Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration. Courtesy of David Bazemore

Buttigieg is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana and a former presidential candidate in the 2020 election. After dropping out, Buttigieg was named the 19th Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration. He was the first openly gay cabinet secretary in United States history and is speculated by some to be a possible presidential candidate in the 2028 election.

The event was hosted by UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) as part of their 2024-25 programming. 

Tickets to the event sold out within approximately 30 minutes. The number of people trying to acquire tickets caused the A&L website to crash upon ticket release on March 13. 

To accommodate the anticipated demand, a queue-style waiting room was added to the ticket purchasing process. A&L later announced that the event would also be broadcasted live at UCSB’s Campbell Hall for students who were unable to secure tickets.

According to Donelan, about 1,980 paid tickets and 600 free student tickets were distributed with a total event attendance to around 2,200.

Buttigieg opened the event with a short speech, discussing his life as a father of two, before getting into his concerns regarding the Trump administration and what he believes Democrats should focus on to gain back power in the government.

“We’ve got to make it easier to do things, to build things, to build housing and transportation infrastructure and clean energy, to make things more affordable, from higher education to food. Some of this is unsexy, but important,” he said.

While Buttigieg briefly touched on his time at the Department of Transportation during President Joe Biden’s term, highlighting community infrastructure projects started across the country under his leadership, he emphasized that his main goal of the evening was to address how to navigate the new presidential administration.

“I wish that I was here to just comfortably reflect on the recent gains in transportation policy, which I’m very proud of by the way,” Buttigieg said. “But obviously, we here today, as a country, have a lot more on our minds than that.”

Throughout his speech, Buttigieg voiced his concerns over the actions carried out by the Trump administration.

“We are witnessing an energetic and so far largely successful attempt by figures in our government, not only to take full control of the levers of official policy power in this country, but also to wield unprecedented levels of government power over the pillars of our civil society,” he said.

He took time to acknowledge the challenges faced by universities in the current political climate, such as the Trump administration’s withholding of federal funding from multiple college campuses. 

“I’m mindful of what it means to be speaking at this university, or any university at a moment like this … Government leaders appear to be seeking unprecedented levels of political control of the practices of academic administration,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg also spoke about “patterns of belonging,” which he defined as “circles that stretch across political or professional or cultural identity and let us better see each other as humans.”

He mentioned his five years in the military and 2014 deployment to Afghanistan as an example, citing his experience as one of “the biggest such opportunities for belonging.” 

“Every time I got behind the wheel of a vehicle ready to go outside, I did so with people who may have had radically different backgrounds than mine,” Buttigieg said. “Sometimes it felt like the only thing we had in common was the American flag patch velcro to our uniforms on the shoulder.”

Buttigieg ended his speech on a note of inspiration, emphasizing the importance of engagement in politics and calling members of the audience to stand alongside their beliefs, reach across the partisan divide and take action against the current administration.  

“Take the opportunity to take control, stop, think, go outside, attend debates, read and talk to people you disagree with. Not so that you wind up halfway, agreeing and meeting in the middle, but so you take the ideas of others seriously,” Buttigieg said. “And then you’ll discover in the process that your own beliefs, whether they change or whether they thicken, either way, they’ll be more serious because of that kind of encounter.”

“It turns out that being around for one of history’s pivot points is not always a pleasant experience,” Buttigieg said. “It is an incredibly important [pivot] point, and approaching it will require each of us to win certain battles within ourselves in order for us to be of any use in the battles that are raging outside.” 

The second portion of the evening was a moderated conversation with Chris Meagher, the former press secretary for Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign. Meagher also served as White House deputy press secretary in 2021 and the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs from 2022-25.

The event featured a moderated conversation between Buttigieg and Chris Meagher, who served as Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign press secretary. Courtesy of David Bazemore

Meagher asked Buttigieg how he’s developing his “better self” and “getting away from the algorithm.” In response, Buttigieg brought up his family. 

“I’ve really taken advantage [of] having left off some more time with my children. They’re three. They don’t know what’s on the news … it just brings you back a little near reality,” he said.

When asked about his thoughts on the Democratic party, Buttigieg emphasized the importance of bipartisan communication. 

“[Democrats] really run the risk of being left behind if we’re only comfortable communicating in spaces that we are already confident will give us the right kind of hearing,” he said.

Meagher touched on whether the federal government is successful in connecting policy achievements with the lived experiences of Americans, to which Buttigieg replied, “we can clearly do better.”

“We do have conversations [where] my party seems to only be able to talk sometimes about the other party … The more we’re talking about them, the less we talk about you,” Buttigieg said.

Meagher then asked questions submitted by students prior to the event. When asked how college students can combat disillusionment and overwhelment due to the news, Buttigieg stressed the importance of staying politically engaged.

“I understand this temptation to step away from politics and policy, but the problem is, it won’t step away from you,” he said. “Young people have moral authority and imagination and courage in ways that are very, very much needed at this time.”

He continued to express this theme of mobilization when answering if he thinks the rule of law can withstand “assaults” on the rule of law by the current administration.

 “No matter how elegant the Constitution could be, the real backstop comes from the American people and what they will or won’t tolerate,” Buttigieg said.

The evening concluded on a positive note, with Buttigieg sharing how he stays motivated to keep going in the current political climate. “I draw a lot of [motivation] from history and personal experience. Everything from experience,” Buttigieg said.

“I’d be really proud to tell my kids about, by the time they’re old enough to demand to know what I was doing in these moments, when it was all on the line,” he continued. “What right do I have to give up?” 

A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the May 1, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.