Pete Buttigieg may have left the Cabinet and grown a little scruff but he hasnt lost his edge.Appearing this week on The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart podcast released Thursday, the former transportation secretary now a private citizen, dad wrangling twin toddlers, and part-time policy professor spoke with the kind of candor rarely possible from the Cabinet room.Sign up for the PRIDE.com Newsletter to get a candid take on whats fresh and fun in LGBTQ+ culture this week!Beard first, though.Pete, look at you with the scruff, Stewart teased as Buttigieg appeared on screen. Youre not working for a month or two, and youre growing out the beard now. @weeklyshowpodcast They dont view an honest discussion of policy as something they need to slow down and do. Were digging into the Trump teams logic, or lack-there-of, with @Pete Buttigieg. #TheWeeklyShow #politics You started it, Buttigieg quipped, noting it was rare in his Cabinet days to go more than a day without shaving. After a family vacation with husband Chasten and their three-and-a-half-year-old twins, he decided to let it grow at least for now.But what Buttigieg wanted to talk about wasnt facial hair it was President Donald Trumps economic wrecking ball and what its doing to ordinary peoples lives.On Trumps tariff shock: That actually mattersButtigieg blasted Trumps recent tariff chaos a jarring series of moves that sent markets plunging, only for Trump to later pause many of the tariffs after already setting the global economy on edge.I grew up in northern Indiana. I live in Michigan. I get what the wrong kind of trade has done to the industrial Midwest, Buttigieg said. But tariffs are supposed to be a tool... in order to get some kind of advantage for the people you serve. This is not that.Referencing recent reporting that conservative think tanks had found basic math errors in Trumps tariff calculations, Buttigieg added, That actually matters when trillions of dollars depend on, first of all, what you do and secondly, how you do it.For Buttigieg, this isnt academic. He warned the stakes are real for everyday Americans not just stock tickers.Investments are not just numbers on a page, he said. These are decisions that very quickly go to our everyday lives... whether you are hoping as a construction worker that a project is gonna go forward near you... This is not a game.And what keeps him up at night isnt just prices rising though he reminded listeners that a tariff is a tax.The other thing Im really watching is the jobs part, he said. Now a recession has gone from being viewed as pretty unlikely a year ago... to being viewed as better than a coin flip.Related: Pete Buttigieg reportedly wont run for U.S. Senate, keeping 2028 presidential hopes aliveHe added: For so many people, this is not just something thats of interest to you because you like watching the news. This is peoples lives.On governing by chaos: This Is Chaotic On PurposeButtigieg argued that the Trump teams disinterest in coherent policy isnt incompetenceits strategy, and its about power.Theres a logic here, he said. If you make it completely chaotic, then the only organizing principle is the man himself.The more messy you make it... the more its total chaos except you get to the man. You get to the king, Buttigieg said. Thats a terrible way to make policy. And its terribly unfair.He continued: If you believe that the press will hold you accountable, then you know that when you dont get something right, you have to talk about it, think about it, learn from it, do better next time. If, on the other hand, you think you can just beat your chest and say its all fake news... then why bother going through the finer points of making sure that all the places youre putting tariffs on are actually countries or checking your math once or twice before you throw the markets into total turmoil, right?On the Signal scandalButtigieg also weighed in on the Trump administrations Signal scandal after The Atlantic reported that top officials coordinated U.S. military strikes in an unsecured group chat and accidentally included a journalist.This is the highest level of fuckup imaginable, Buttigieg posted on Instagram. These people cannot keep America safe.On Stewarts podcast, he didnt rehash the profanity but underscored the danger.They send the battle plans to the wrong guy on the wrong text app, and they randomly put a tariff on a country that doesnt have anybody. Its not even a country; its just an island with some penguins, Buttigieg said. These screwups are not something that causes introspection.On life after Washington: I guess I should feed the dog nowButtigieg, now spending more time at home in Michigan, reflected on the whiplash of going from a Cabinet role to being a regular dad again.This is a department with 55,000 people... and then one day its 12 oclock, and youre done, and you just like, 'I guess I should feed the dog now,' he said. Its a strange feeling.Buttigieg recently announced that he would not be running for Michigans open U.S. Senate seat or the governors mansion, leaving many to speculate that he is setting himself up for a presidential run in 2028. These days, hes in the van negotiating toy disputes between his kids or true to form stopping by road construction projects to chat with workers.It was one of the projects that we funded, he said. And while hes enjoying the family time and the beard hes clear-eyed about whats happening in Washington.All of us are... just very, very alarmed about whats happening around the country, he said.