Trump hammered by conservatives for secret $500M-loan bailout to rescue struggling company

The Trump administration is “nearing” a deal to provide the Florida-based Spirit Airlines with a loan of up to $500 million, insiders revealed to The Wall Street Journal Wednesday, designed to help the struggling airline amid rising costs tied to Trump’s war against Iran, sparking outrage from onlookers.

“While the government has helped the airline industry in times of crisis, like the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Covid-19 pandemic, rescuing Spirit would be a rare intervention to prop up a single carrier,” the Journal’s report reads.

Earlier this week, Trump floated to CNBC the idea of the federal government helping rescue Spirit Airlines, which for years has struggled financially. After Trump launched attacks against Iran, and the subsequent partial closing of the Strait of Hormuz, Spirit Airlines’ struggles were further exacerbated due to the skyrocketing price of jet fuel.

The proposal echoes the Trump administration’s $12 billion bailout to farmers last year, which, while different from the proposal to rescue Spirit Airlines in that the $12 billion was not a loan, similarly followed the White House’s own policy decisions that disrupted markets.

“Under the agreement being discussed, the U.S. government would loan the embattled discount carrier as much as $500 million, receiving in return warrants to take a potential significant stake in Spirit,” the Journal’s report reads, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

Critics were not pleased with the news, including several prominent conservative figures.

"Spirit is the s-------- airline in America. Why does it need saving? And what is the taxpayer getting from this corporate welfare?" asked journalist Robert Lusetich in a social media post on X.

"Absolutely not. Do not do this," wrote conservative political commentator Dana Loesch in a social media post to her more than 1.3 million followers.

Ex-GOP operative Rick Wilson was left mostly speechless by the news, simply writing "uh" in response, conservative journalist Karol Markowicz of the New York Post asked "but why," and conservative journalist Sonny Bunch, executive editor at The Bulwark, sarcastically celebrated that the government can finally "own a piece of the s-------- airline in existence."

And Craig Fuller, a freight and logistics expert, made a humorous observation that the proposed $500 million loan was at least the second instance of the Trump administration "providing bailouts" to "yellow-themed business," a likely reference to the Trump administration's $700 loan in 2020 to the Yellow Corporation, a Kansas-based transportation company.