I've always advocated having a president who is multi-lingual
Not that I am endorsing Pete Buttigieg at this point, but it's about time someone is running who can speak more than just English and Spanish.
Another post said that he spoke Spanish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Arabic, Maltese and Dari.
While I don't know any Maltese, Arabic or Dari, I do know Swedish (practically the same as Norwegian), Russian, Catalan, German and Dutch, plus the others (Spanish, French and Italian) that Buttegieg knows. And one of my nephews speaks Arabic. Maybe I should run for VP if Mayor Pete gets the nomination! If we were ever worried about aides listening in on our conversations, we could switch to a random mish-mosh of Spanish, Italian, French and Scandinavian, and leave them in the dust.
Seriously, while Maltese and Dari are hardly vital to the presidency, a US president who can speak Arabic would gain huge favor when dealing with (and visiting!) Arab countries.
Republicans can usually only speak Republicanese, and Trump has even invented his own incoherent version of that.
Macron speaks fluent English, Putin speaks fluent German, Tony Blair spoke good French (I give Merkel a pass on English, as she grew up in East Germany, where Russian was required), but far too many heads of state of major countries speak nothing but their own language, plus a little English if their language is something else.
A multi-lingual US president would go a long way toward restoring our image abroad. The presidency of the USA being what it is, linguistic ability will have to remain an added bonus rather than a vital aspect, but it wouldn't hurt for once. Sure, economy, environment, social issues and national security have to come first, but having a president who raises our national image in the rest of the world would be nice to have again. If they can't be rock stars like Clinton and Obama, then a little intellect can go a long way.
= new reply since forum marked as read
In other countries (as you know) it's not at all unusual for people to speak more than one language. But Americans seem to expect everyone else to speak English - which they often do. It would be a pleasant surprise for those he was visiting to have an American president who spoke their language. I'm not necessarily endorsing Pete Buttigieg at this point, either - but it sure would go a long way in making a positive impression - especially after Trump! 
is need.
It's not unusual for people in other countries to speak more than one language.
And yet ESL programs for immigrants are packed, and if you look at the immigrants (mostly lower class) in schools there's virtually no English.
If you need to speak it because you're in situations where it's required, you learn it; if you learned it as a school requirement, you retain it. The only other exception is where it's a signal of education and superiority, so people work to maintain it in much the same way that my mother decided as she was upwardly mobile in the '60s that she needed a fur coat. Or, as in one Tolstoy story, they were learning it ... forever. (One character was learning to conjugate etre and had, apparently, proudly claimed this for well over a decade of "learning French". One marks tribal allegiance in various ways.) There are people like me who think it's just fun and seriously enjoys (and so "finds a need"
reading things in their original forms, whether Sartre and Balzac, Dostoevsky and Shalamov, Cervantes and Borges and Sabato, Havel and Hasek, or even Mickiewicz. It's something I "need" like learning the current Kreisler short pieces for violin. Not for money and it gets me no social prestige nor tribal membership; but I prefer these non-paying activities to work, and work to enable them.
In Prague in the '90s, I found a lot of English and German speakers, some French speakers and Russian speakers. What was tourism in the '80s and '90s? Precisely that. In Brno, it was pretty much all (Austrian) German, but the tourism there was almost entirely from Austria. Among business folk in Cesko, more Russian and less French. The kids at the time were focused on west European languages, not Russian, but some still said "Russian" because they could see trade with Russia returning. I could usually find somebody who spoke something that I did at some adequate level. But I often had to try several times to find a common tongue and make it work. In the second year I was there, seldom did their ability in non-Czech surpass my Czech. Unless it was a place where there was a need.
In France I found almost no English speakers in the shops on the main street. Then again, it wasn't a touristy place. The relatives I had with me had assured me that "everybody speaks English." Um, not so much. They had a nearly zero need to speak English; anybody who'd get there would be most likely able to navigate in French.
In Helskinki I had to search--nor not--for English speakers. Depended where I was. The non-tourist restaurant and stores had employees who just stared at me. In a place in a touristy area everybody knew English. In Leningrad the contrast was even starker. The general level of English among 20-somethings was on par with the general level of Spanish or French among white American 20-somethings. They had a few years in school, considered it a waste of time, didn't maintain it, and if they worked hard it was likely to get a good grade while learning as little as possible. (In many ways, Russians are like Americans.)
good morning / afternoon. 
one language 
