President Donald Trump is currently considering a bailout or partial nationalization of the floundering budget airline Spirit Airlines.

The president’s instinct to intervene is the same instinct that led Spirit down the path that resulted in two bankruptcies in 2024 and 2025. In 2023, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice sued to block the proposed merger of Spirit and JetBlue Airlines, where the latter was set to acquire Spirit’s assets for $3.8 billion. A federal judge sided with the Biden administration in January 2024, and JetBlue terminated the deal, worsening Spirit’s financial difficulties. After the merger fell through, Spirit’s stock price plummeted a whopping 47%. The budget airline first filed for bankruptcy in November 2024.