Former Transportation Secretary and Democratic presidential shortlister Pete Buttigieg slammed President Donald Trump over the nation’s “diminished” status in the world, telling late-night host Stephen Colbert that China is more trusted now than the U.S.

The former Biden cabinet member has emerged as a vociferous messenger for Democrats and one of the few Dem heavy hitters willing to go where others won’t, such as Fox News.

Buttigieg was in friendlier territory on Wednesday night’s edition of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, during which the host played a very old clip of Secretary Pete when he was Student Pete, and asked how his view of America’s role in the world has changed since then:

STEPHEN COLBERT: We’ve got an old clip here. It’s you at Harvard in 2001 asking a panel if 9/11 will change the way Americans view their role in the world.

FMR. SECRETARY PETE BUTTIGIEG: Are we likely to see now, for the average American, a greater respect for international institutions, a better sensitivity for international affairs, an understanding of the way everything is connected?

Or can we expect to go international just long enough for our international war effort and then just pull right back in to where the U.S. is what we worry about and the rest of the world is just there?

STEPHEN COLBERT: Fantastic question a great question for anyone, let alone a freshman who evidently got into Harvard at age 13.

25 years later, how do you view America’s role in the world?

FMR. SECRETARY PETE BUTTIGIEG: Diminished. Sadly.

I mean, you know, when I was a student, it was just understood that the U.S. was the leading nation in the world, not just the biggest, not the richest, not most powerful, but the country that people looked to because of our values as well as because of our strength.

And now, under Donald Trump, there are by some measures more people around the world who trust China to do the right thing than the United States.

That should bother every patriotic American. Because the reality is, when people do not trust the United States, that affects us.

You don’t have to be a foreign policy buff to be concerned about that or to be affected by that. That affects everything from our security as a country to the prices we pay at the store.

And it will take a generation to establish the credibility and the trust that the U.S. had, it almost seemed, by right. Back when I was a student showing up for freshman year.

Watch above via The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

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