Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg (/ˈbuːtɪdʒədʒ/ ⓘ BOO-tij-əj;[a] born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former naval officer who served as the 19th United States secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025.

[20] His father, a translator of Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci's Prison Notebooks and the editor of a three-volume English edition, influenced his son's decision to study literature in college.

[50] After earning his Oxford degree, in 2007, Buttigieg became a consultant at the Chicago office of McKinsey & Company,[51][52] where he worked on energy, retail, economic development, and logistics for three years.

[53][54] His clients at McKinsey included the health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, electronics retailer Best Buy, Canadian supermarket chain Loblaws, two nonprofit environmentalist groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Energy Foundation, and several U.S. government agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Energy Department, Defense Department, and Postal Service.

Part of this was done at Bagram Air Base, but he was also an armed driver for his commander on more than 100 trips into Kabul, where he was tasked with watching out for ambushes and explosive devices along the roads and ensuring that the vehicle was guarded.

[84][107][108] In 2015, during the controversy over Indiana Senate Bill 101 – the original version of which was widely criticized for allowing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people – Buttigieg emerged as a leading opponent of the legislation.

[117] In a new phase of the Vacant and Abandoned Properties Initiative, South Bend partnered with the Notre Dame Clinical Law Center to provide free legal assistance to qualifying applicants wishing to acquire vacant lots and, with local nonprofits, to repair or construct homes and provide low-income home ownership assistance using South Bend Housing and Urban Development funds.

[120][121] The City of South Bend partnered with the State of Indiana and private developers to break ground on a $165 million renovation of the former Studebaker complex in 2016, hoping that the redevelopment would facilitate industrial and housing units.

[123] In 2019, Buttigieg asked for the city to be released from an agreement with the EPA brokered under his mayoral predecessor Steve Luecke, in which South Bend had agreed to make hundreds of millions of dollars in further improvements to its sewer system by 2031.

[95] After a white South Bend police officer shot and killed Eric Logan, an African American man, in June 2019, Buttigieg was drawn from his presidential campaign to focus on the emerging public reaction.

[142] Soon after Logan's death, Buttigieg presided over a town hall meeting attended by disaffected activists from the African American community as well as relatives of the deceased man.

[143][144] Buttigieg secured $180,000 in November 2019 to commission a review of South Bend's police department policies and practices, to be conducted by Chicago-based consulting firm 21CP Solutions.

Michael Harriot, senior writer at The Root, accused Buttigieg of "racist paternalism" for saying that children of color lack role models that promote the value of education.

[194] The PAC focused on local elected positions, and its list of endorsements included candidates such as Jaime Harrison, Cal Cunningham, Gina Ortiz Jones, Christine Hunschofsky, and Levar Stoney.

[213] As Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg worked on re-organizing the department's internal policy structure, including carrying out a thorough review process of rules enacted under the Trump administration.

[214][215] For example, Buttigieg reinstated an Obama-era pilot program which ensures local hiring for public works projects on May 19, 2021, with the goal of helping minorities and disadvantaged individuals.

[219] Using money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the program aims to reconnect cities and neighborhoods divided by roads through projects such as rapid bus lines, pedestrian walkways, and planning studies.

"[222] According to his department, Buttigieg had been on paid leave since mid-August 2021, where for a month he was "mostly offline except for major agency decisions and matters that could not be delegated", and he "has been ramping up activities since then", making many media appearances in early October 2021.

[222] After passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Insider called Buttigieg "the most powerful transportation secretary ever", as the department now has $210 billion of discretionary grants to award.

[227] Buttigieg informed Congress in late March 2021 that the Biden administration was planning to prioritize the construction of the Gateway Rail Tunnel Project due to its economic significance.

Also, while acknowledging how the United States fell behind other developed countries with respect to bicycle and pedestrian safety, Buttigieg encouraged greater focus on human behavior in infrastructure policy.

[244] In the weeks following the derailment, the Transportation Department, under Buttigieg, did not move to reinstate the 2015 rail safety rule aimed at expanding the use of better braking technology, which the Trump administration had revoked.

[247] In March 2023, Buttigieg appeared on CNN, telling the cable news network that he had failed to anticipate the fallout from the derailment and erred in not visiting East Palestine sooner.

[252] During his 2020 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Buttigieg proposed spending $1 trillion on U.S. infrastructure projects over the next ten years, estimating that the plan would create at least six million jobs.

The plan focused on green energy, protecting tap water from lead, fixing roads and bridges, improving public transportation, repairing schools, guaranteeing broadband internet access, and preparing communities for floods and other natural disasters.

He also supports the Green New Deal proposed by House Democrats,[273][274] solar panel subsidies, and a carbon tax and dividend policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

[287] Buttigieg has said that he believes the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks was justified[278] but supported the planned withdrawal of American troops from the region with a maintained intelligence presence.

In March 2017, he wrote an article for the HuffPost defending a resident of Granger, Indiana, who was deported after living in the U.S. for 17 years despite regularly checking in with ICE and applying for a green card.

[305] In January 2019, Buttigieg told CBS News that Trump had been "reckless" in sending American troops to the Southern border, calling the decision "a measure of last resort".

[333] To mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in June 2019, Queerty named him one of its "Pride50" people—"trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards equality, acceptance and dignity for all queer people".