Spirit Airlines closed on Saturday after a $500 million government bailout was tanked
Bessent, 63, appeared on Sunday Morning Futures, and was asked by host Maria Bartiromo: “The treasury was supposed to be doing a deal to save this company. Can you tell us what happened?”
- “So, this is just more of the mess we inherited from the Biden administration,” he responded.
- He then said: “In September 2022, Elizabeth Warren—who loves to write letters—sent a letter to the Justice Department, to the Labor, to the Transport Department saying that they should oppose the merger with Spirit Airlines."
- Speaking of the merger proposal first announced in July 2022 and dropped in March 2024, he added: “JetBlue wanted to buy them for $3.8 billion. It would have given them much more resiliency.
Overlooking Spirit’s two bankruptcy filings since 2024, Bessent continued: “And she and the Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg—probably the worst transportation secretary in history when he came to the office—they were against the merger.
“And if JetBlue had merged with Spirit, we would have all these jobs that were lost yesterday. We had thirty airports—thirty regional airports who have lost service.”
Trump reportedly wanted his administration to give the budget airline $500 million in return for a stake worth up to 90 percent in the business before the deal fell through.
The huge bailout plan faced opposition from within the GOP, and was taken off the table Friday.
All Spirit operations have now ceased, with flights canceled and customer service shutdown as the airline’s workforce was suddenly fired en masse.
