Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg answers questions at a Washington Post Live discussion Thursday in Washington. | Win McNamee/Getty Images 2020 Elections Buttigieg likens Trump to a 'crazy uncle' The South Bend mayor also accused of him of using a 'fake' injury to avoid Vietnam.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Thursday likened his approach to taking on President Donald Trump to dealing with a “crazy uncle.”

“It’s almost like a sort of crazy uncle management,” the Democratic primary candidate said. “Like, he’s there. You’re not going to disrespect his humanity. But he thinks what he thinks. There’s not much you can do about it.”


In an hourlong live interview with The Washington Post, Buttigieg refused to personally attack the 23 challengers he faces in the Democratic primary. But he had plenty to say about the president.

“Any energy that goes his way — including energy that goes his way in the form of criticism — turns into a kind of food,” Buttigieg said. “He just devours it and gets bigger. What we’ve got to learn is how to kind of stiff-arm him.”

“It’s actually getting harder and harder to find a policy of this administration that most Americans don’t disagree with,” he continued. “Which is exactly, of course, why they need it not to be about policy.”

The Indiana mayor has emerged as somewhat of a dark horse in the Democratic primary, garnering an unexpected amount of support in early polls. Members of both parties have praised Buttigieg's relatively calm demeanor and willingness to engage with those across the aisle.

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Still, in response to a number of questions about Trump, the mayor went after the president’s record and moral character. He called the pardons the president is reportedly considering for American troops accused or convicted of war crimes “disgusting,” he slammed Trump for his “fake” injury to avoid serving in the Vietnam War, and he accused the president of racist behavior.

The New York Times reported last week that Trump is mulling pardons for several American military members, including those accused or convicted of murder or attempted murder.

“The idea that the president is going to overrule that is an affront to the basic idea of good order and discipline, and to the idea of the very thing we put our lives on the line to defend,” said Buttigieg, who served as a Navy intelligence officer in Afghanistan.

He later added that he has a “pretty dim view” of Trump’s decision to “use his privileged status to fake a disability in order to avoid serving in Vietnam.”

The president was granted five draft deferments — four for college and one for bone spurs in his heel — and never served in the military.

“This is somebody who, I think it’s fairly obvious to most of us, took advantage of the fact that he was the child of a multimillionaire in order to pretend to be disabled so that somebody could go to war in his place,” Buttigieg said.

The 37-year-old also said he was “old enough to remember when conservatives talked about character as something that mattered in the presidency.”

Buttigieg, who has struggled to gain traction among African American voters, said he thinks Trump is a racist.

“The problem with the president is he does and says racist things and gives cover to other racists,” he said.

Trump has taken shots at the South Bend mayor before, though with not nearly as much frequency as with the Democratic front-runners such as former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

After Buttigieg spoke at a Fox News town hall Sunday, the president took to Twitter to complain that the network was “wasting airtime” on the mayor, who he said “never speaks well of me.”

Trump last week in an interview said he has no problem with Buttigieg being openly gay, adding that “he thinks it’s good.”

But the president has also likened Buttigieg to Alfred E. Neuman, the gap-toothed, big-eared character on the cover of the humor magazine Mad.

Buttigieg has brushed off Trump's words, characterizing them as campaign tactics. “I’ve got a fair amount of familiarity with bullies,” he said Thursday.

“I don’t have a problem standing up to somebody who was working on season seven of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ when I was packing my bags for Afghanistan,” he added. “But at the end of the day, it’s not about him.”