President Donald Trump is nearing a $500 million deal to bail out Spirit Airlines, which would also see the federal government potentially taking a majority equity stake in the troubled ultra-low-cost carrier.
The news resulted in a surge in stock prices for Spirit, which was reportedly on the verge of ceasing all operations and liquidating as soon as this week. But several current and former elected Republican lawmakers were enraged over the news, seeing it as an irresponsible intervention in the free market.
"This is an absolutely TERRIBLE idea. The TARP corporate bailouts were a huge mistake & the government doesn’t know a damn thing about running a failed budget airline (that the Biden admin killed)," wrote Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on X — a reference to the bid for JetBlue and Spirit to merge in 2024 being blocked by an antitrust suit, although in reality a bigger factor in Spirit's demise was the Iran war spiking fuel prices.
"If Spirit’s creditors or other potential investors don’t think they can run it profitably coming out of its second bankruptcy in under two years, I doubt the US Government can either," wrote Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). "Not the best use of taxpayer dollars."
Meanwhile, former far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who soured on Trump in her final year of office, had a lot to say about the whole ordeal.
"Customers rated Spirit Airlines: poor customer service, uncomfortable, non-reclining seats, and high fees for luggage," she wrote. "But Spirit gets a $500 million dollar taxpayer funded bailout. No you don’t get a DOGE check. No you don’t get a tariff refund check, actually you pay back tariffs by the billions. You get another foreign war that you have to pay for and someone you know gets shipped off to serve in."