Trump faces conservative blowback over Spirit Airlines rescue

The Trump administration is facing growing opposition on the political right over its plan to bail out Spirit Airlines, with conservatives raising concerns about the precedent it sets for government involvement in business. 

President Trump first floated the idea of a bailout Tuesday when reports surfaced that the administration was considering a $500 million bailout for Spirit. A lawyer for the airline confirmed that it is in talks with the government on how to finance going forward. 

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), two prominent Trump supporters, swiftly came out against the plan. Cruz blasted the plan as “a terrible idea” in a post on social platform X, while Cotton referred to it as “not the best use of taxpayer dollars.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) responded to Cruz’s post, arguing that “competition among airlines suffers when government bails them out.” Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) also lashed out against the reported plan, saying, “Americans shouldn’t be on the hook for another failing business as its competition thrives.”

Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence’s group, Advancing American Freedom, rolled out its own memo asking why Washington is not bailing out companies struggling due to the administration’s tariffs. 

Some conservatives have privately compared a potential bailout of Spirit Airlines to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), enacted during the 2007-08 financial crisis to bail out the financial sector. TARP was fiercely opposed by conservative critics, many of whom laid the foundation for the Tea Party revolution in 2009, who claimed it saved wealthy bankers at the expense of everyday Americans.

Cruz and Lee, along with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, are among several major GOP figures who rose to power during the Tea Party wave, fueled by backlash to government bailouts.

“The Tea Party Patriots were the precursor to MAGA, and I think there’s a lot of members that know that,” said Marc Short, chair of Advancing American Freedom and former legislative affairs director under the first Trump administration. 

Duffy was said not to be in favor of the plan to rescue Spirit, according to The Wall Street Journal. He also questioned the move during an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. 

“⁠There’s been a lot of money thrown at Spirit, and they haven’t found their way into profitability,” Duffy said. “And so would we just forestall the inevitable and then own ⁠that?”

“If no one else wants to ​buy them, why would we buy them?” he asked. 

One Republican strategist voiced concern that GOP opposition to Trump in the Senate could potentially lead to a fracture between some members and the White House. 

“These guys are busting out,” the strategist said. “It’s also bad for the president because it opened a crack. The Senate has been very deferential to him.” 

The same strategist also worried that a potential bailout would be a bad look for Republicans going into the midterms. 

“At a time when inflation is high, confidence in government is low, the last thing that any taxpayer or voter wants to see is the government spending money on a failed airline,” the strategist said.  

The plan has not only left many conservatives flabbergasted. One airline industry source referred to the administration’s potential bailout as “spectacularly bad judgment.”

“If you thought you were in a competitive landscape, that you were losing somebody who was critical to competition, that would be a different conversation. You’re talking about Spirit Airlines. They’re 3.5 percent of the market,” the source said. 

“I guarantee you that the rest of the industry is going to pick up the valuable pieces here,” the source added, referring to competitors like JetBlue Airways that could absorb what is left of Spirit if it were to fail. 

The development comes as the administration has bought equity in private sector companies, totaling $20.9 billion, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

“There’s a part of me that’s saying why not when it was US Steel,” Short said, referring to the American steel company that was acquired by the Japanese company Nippon Steel in 2025.

“Why not when it’s been multiple different state owned enterprises that this administration has ventured into?” he said. 

Spirit has been navigating financial turmoil since the coronavirus pandemic, with its troubles deepening over the past two years. The carrier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2024 and then again in August 2025. 

Former President Biden and then-Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg opposed a proposed merger between Spirit and JetBlue in 2023.

The White House has projected blame on the Biden administration for blocking the merger.

“Spirit Airlines would be on a much firmer financial footing had the Biden administration not recklessly blocked the airline’s merger with JetBlue,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement when asked about the conservative pushback to the rescue plan. 

“The Trump administration continues to monitor the situation and overall health of the U.S. aviation industry that millions of Americans rely on every day for essential travel and their livelihoods,” he continued.

JPMorgan Chase analysts found that Spirit’s forecast operating margin would plummet from -7 percent to -20 percent in fiscal 2026 if fuel prices remain above $4.60 a gallon, according to research released last week.

While bigger airlines like American and Delta have been able to deal with rising fuel prices amid the Iran war because of wealthier clientele, Spirit has only continued to struggle.

“Low cost carriers cannot pass that on. If they bump the ticket price to $10, people are not going to fly,” said Peter St. Onge, a senior economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation. 

“They were driven over the edge,” he said. 

There are legitimate arguments in favor of bailing out Spirit, some analysts say.

“It’s a temporary bailout of a small player so that you can maintain competition in the industry, which is really important not only for jobs but the end consumer,” said James Vrachas, executive director of mergers and acquisitions at the Post Oak Group.

“Conservatives don’t respond well to the perception that the government is intervening excessively into the private market,” he continued. “That’s why the key kind of framing we believe President Trump would want to frame it is this is very much a one-off, temporary bailout of Spirit Airlines to actually help the private market longterm.”

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Trump faces conservative blowback over Spirit Airlines rescue

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