Buttigieg Silence, Pharma’s Exposed Flank and Positioning the Pope

Should Buttigieg Own the Narrative? I preface what I’m about to say with, I’m a Pete Buttigieg fan and would love to see him as president someday. But his lack of response to Trump Administration attacks, including by Trump himself, about FAA problems may derail any chance of that if he doesn’t get control of this narrative.

How’d we get here? As Transportation Secretary under Biden, Buttigieg was responsible for the FAA as well as railroads, highways and more. He also became a major spokesperson for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law given how much infrastructure his agency oversaw. That includes the U.S. air-traffic control system now experiencing major issues.  

But let’s be honest, this system fell behind decades ago. A bad combination of fluctuating priorities post-9/11 and during Covid, budget constraints and inconsistent funding, contractor underperformance, political gamesmanship and more. The combination has slowed upgrades, led to staffing shortages and put enormous pressure on a critical, yet rapidly aging system.

It’s a mess and it’s unacceptable. Should we blame today’s problems on its most recent overseer? Partially. But that doesn’t negate the fact Trump Administration 1.0 managed the system just four years earlier and didn’t address the challenges either.

For Trump, blaming Buttigieg is a twofer. Not only does it advance his overall argument that everything good came from him and everything bad came from Biden, it taints a highly articulate, strong Democratic leader.

Buttigieg is an incredible communicator whether he’s doing town halls in Iowa or battling news anchors on Fox News. So I’m assuming he and his team are calculating he shouldn’t respond to Trump attacks regarding the air traffic control system because, well, the whole wrestling with a pig scenario. I think it’s a mistake.  

It is very hard to unstick a narrative once stuck. And the stakes on this one couldn’t be higher. As more of the nation’s airports experience technical outages and people scale back travel, Buttigieg becomes a politically expedient scapegoat who worried more about DEI than the flying public’s safety. And God forbid, there’s another plane crash.

I asked a former colleague and crisis communications expert, Lauren Condoluci, to weigh in for another opinion. “Pete Buttigieg shouldn't take the bait from the Trump team,” she said. “If Buttigieg were to weigh in, he would become a distraction, which is key to the Trump playbook. That said, the American public deserves a safe national air system, and this should be a very serious conversation during the next election cycle for all candidates, especially Mr. Buttigieg if he chooses to run again."

I see that position and admit it’s a tough call. While I’m generally for staying proactive and positive, I’ve seen too many good people undone because they wanted to take the high road. I come down strongly on the side of rebuttal, perhaps on Fox News, that reframes the overall narrative without swinging at every pitch. Perhaps something like:

“There’s certainly a lot of blame to go around for where our air traffic control system is today, and it dates back at least 25 years. It’s a complicated system with many moving parts that needs to safely fly some 3 million people in the US every day while being upgraded. Progress has been too slow due to competing political agendas, inconsistent funding, and delays in management and by contractors. And let’s not forget: Trump and his prior administration were responsible for the system for four years and didn’t get much done. In fact, he spent a chunk of his first term trying to privatize the system only to have that fail, then announced numerous Infrastructure Weeks that didn’t materialize and ultimately spent way more building an unfinished wall than he ever spent modernizing air traffic control. All that is to say, the president should focus on solving the problem and stop the childish blame game that very easily splashes back on him. Ensuring Americans have the safest system for air travel should be the only focus.”

How Protected is Your Flank? Because so much corporate news lately is driven by the actions of the Trump Administration, this week demonstrated what happens when your flank is exposed.

Drug companies found themselves once again on the hot seat. Trump signed an executive order requiring price cuts by U.S. drug manufacturers while threatening tariffs on drugs made more cheaply overseas. Big Pharma is a perennial favorite of critics on both sides of the political aisle, who complain about higher prices in the US while highly profitable companies like Pfizer, Merck and others benefit.

There’s a reason for that. Because 8 in 10 Americans see the cost of drug prices as unreasonable, blaming corporate profits that are too high.

And it is precisely because these companies know how they’re viewed that it is all the more mind-blowing they haven’t done anything to shore up their exposure. Instead they’ve opted to fight it out on the courts while the court of public opinion have rendered them thieves.

When Comcast was regularly touted as the most hated company in the US, the company dramatically increased charitable giving and made sure to publicize the work they did in local communities across the US. For example, I know many drug companies have programs that subsidize the cost of drugs for older and economically challenged populations, but I wouldn’t know that if I hadn’t heard it from someone I know.

At the same time, Walmart came under fire by Trump after saying tariffs may increase prices for some goods. While Trump threatened the company, saying they should “eat the tariffs,” the company maintained calm and said they’ll try to limit the increases as much as possible because their entire business is about offering lower-cost options to their customers. It’s unlikely Walmart shoppers will blame them for price increases because the company has built a relationship over time that prioritized lower price goods, food and even drugs for its shoppers.

Positioning the Pope: Every since white smoke emerged from the Sistine Chapel and the world was introduced to Pope Leo XIV, I’ve been wondering, how do you position the leader of 1.4 billion people on the fly. This isn’t like introducing a new CEO of a Fortune 50 company: In most cases, there is at least a few days even if it’s a sudden departure and often months if there’s a clear succession plan.

In this case, after a conclave lasting just 24 hours, the world met the new leader of the Catholic Church without the benefit of knowing how he wanted to be positioned and what messages he’d deliver. It would seem, much of what happened immediately after his election, was driven by Pope Leo himself – who is he, what does he prioritize and how does he see the world.  

His first words upon stepping onto the balcony were, “peace be with you all.” And his first call with a foreign dignitary was to Ukrainian President Zelensky.  During a press conference with some 1,000 journalists the same week, he spoke of the importance of unity and a free press. So there are increasing clues as to how he defines this calling but it could hardly have been mapped out beforehand.

So different than corporate turnovers.

Too often, that responsibility falls to the Communications team, charged with positioning that individual with employees, crafting the priorities and how to speak of them. Often without a lot of input from the principal. The challenge is that often creates a disingenuous impression, especially if that person’s personal behavior doesn’t match. For example, leaders who say they want employees to adopt cost constraints while throwing lavish parties and flying in private jets.

I recall one former colleague who said the person I had created publicly was much nicer than the one who actually existed, and it always stuck with me. As a communicator, I’m still not entirely sure I feel good about that.

Positioning any leader is best done when that person is intimately involved in setting the vision, priorities and particular words and phrases that will resonate — with them and others. Start by answering the question: What is the world you want to create and how can you as a leader help deliver it? The rest will flow.

I welcome your thoughts on these topics as well as others we should explore.