Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders both products of broken economy, Pete Buttigieg says

Mr Buttigieg has seen been rising in the polls recently

Pete Buttigieg says he believes the political attraction to men like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is a product of an economy does that not work for everyday Americans, and pushes them to embrace extremes on the ideological spectrum.

Mr Buttigieg, who has emerged as one of the several leading candidates in the Democratic presidential primary field, said as much during a campaign stop in New Hampshire over the weekend while discussing the economic recovery following the 2008 stock market crash.

“I think the sense of anger and disaffection that comes from seeing that the numbers are fine, like unemployment's low, like all that, like you said GDP is growing and yet a lot of neighbourhoods and families are living like this recovery never even happened. They're stuck,” Mr Buttigieg said on Friday in Nashua.

He continued, according to the Washington Examiner: ”It just kind of turns you against the system in general and then you're more likely to want to vote to blow up the system, which could lead you to somebody like Bernie and it could lead you to somebody like Trump. That's how we got where we are.”

Mr Trump and Mr Sanders have both take what have been called populist approaches to their rhetoric, and have both highlighted the growing rift between the wealthy in the US and average workers.

Since taking office, Mr Trump has largely attempted to take credit for a record breaking run of stock market growth that was set up during the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Mr Sanders, meanwhile, has brought his 2016 attacks on the billionaire and millionaire classes to the 2020 race, where he has highlighted the stagnant wage growth seen in spite of the statistics showing the US economy is generally strong.

Mr Buttigieg has been rising in the polls against Mr Sanders, who leads the field among candidates who have announced their run for the presidency.

In one of the most recent polls, from Emerson University, Mr Sanders led the pack with 29 per cent of the vote, followed by Mr Buttigieg with 9 per cent. In between those two was Joe Biden, who received 24 per cent support even though he has not declared his candidacy.