Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Monday said he’s not afraid to take on President Trump, but that Democrats have to do it in a way that doesn’t infuse Mr. Trump with the energy he uses as a “food” to grow bigger.

“I’m not scared of this president,” Mr. Buttigieg said on CNN. “I mean, this a guy who was working on season seven of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ when I was driving armored vehicles outside the wire in Afghanistan. I’m not afraid to take him on.”

Mr. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and a combat veteran, said the question is how to take Mr. Trump on without empowering him.

“You know, the gift of this president is to take any energy that goes his way, even if it’s in the form of criticism, and turn it into a kind of food that he just grows off of and gets bigger,” he said. “That’s the code that we’ve got to crack. And I think the way to do it is to name and confront everything that he does wrong, but then immediately go back to talking about the impact that we will have on voters’ lives.”

Mr. Buttigieg said Mr. Trump is playing Americans “for suckers.”

“The message that he’s telling to these Americans is: Yes, you’re not making enough money,” the mayor said. “Yes … housing is becoming unaffordable, college education is out of reach for your kids, and your job may be automated away in 10 years. But your big problem in life is political correctness.”

Mr. Buttigieg expressed skepticism about Mr. Trump’s economic record, saying that while the GDP is going up, life expectancy is going down.

“Yes, the best economy ever,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “I mean, under [President Barack] Obama, unemployment goes what, from 10 to 5? Trump sees it go from 5 to 4. … He’s like the rooster in the morning, thinks he made the sun come up.”

“So yes, the Dow’s up. There’s some nice economic numbers. Fantastic,” he said. “Ninety percent of Americans have not seen their incomes budge more than the slightest amount the entire time that I have been alive.”

Mr. Buttigieg is one of 10 Democratic contenders who will take the debate stage on Tuesday in Detroit. He led the 2020 Democratic field in fundraising in the second quarter, but has been polling behind former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California in recent surveys.

He said people can expect to see “a different message and a different kind of messenger.”

“I’m just not like the others, and I think that’s going to come across,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “I’m going to talk about why I’m the best person to be the nominee and to be the president, and folks can poke holes. It’s what they do. That’s part of what a debate is for. I welcome it.”

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