Tag Archives for trump.
Spirit Airlines offered taxpayers 80% of the company in exchange for a $500 million bailout. Trump wanted 90% and that extra demand may have helped kill the deal, leaving creditors to conclude they were better off liquidating the airline than giving the government nearly everything.
Palm Beach County and the Trump Organization have reached an agreement on the use of Donald Trump’s name to rename Palm Beach International airport for the President. They will vote on it on Tuesday.
The State Department is preparing a limited-run U.S. passport variant with Donald Trump’s portrait and gold signature inside, tied to America’s 250th birthday. It appears to be available through the Washington Passport Agency around July 4.
President Trump is now openly floating a federal rescue of Spirit Airlines, saying “I think we just buy” the carrier even as his administration still has no clear legal path to make that happen. Here’s what betting market odds look like on the outcome.
Flight attendants union head Sara Nelson is now urging President Trump to throw Spirit Airlines a lifeline, a remarkable turn for one of organized labor’s most prominent progressive voices. Her appeal doubles as an argument that the Biden administration’s antitrust decision helped push Spirit to the brink, even as the bailout now being discussed appears to have no real basis in law.
President Trump had not yet decided whether to rescue Spirit Airlines when two of his cabinet secretaries argued the case in front of him, with one side pitching a bailout as a midterm political win and the other warning it would look like a costly rescue of a failing company. The striking part is not just that the White House is weighing a $500 million loan and a potential 90% ownership stake, but that there is still no plausible legal authority for the federal government to do it.
The Trump administration is reportedly preparing a $500 million bailout for Spirit Airlines, a carrier that has already burned through bankruptcy, taxpayer aid, and private capital without finding a viable business model. If this goes through, it will not just hand public money to a failing airline — it will normalize using legally dubious federal power to socialize losses for companies the market has already given up on.
A pilot in Palm Beach County has sued to stop Florida from renaming Palm Beach International Airport for President Trump, arguing the state has no business forcing a local airport to rebrand itself for political reasons. The case is a long shot, focused on how far the state can go in commandeering a local public asset for symbolic politics.
Florida just renamed Palm Beach airport for Trump.
But the new name will not actually take effect for months. The law does not kick in until July 1, and there is still federal approval and a naming agreement to get through first.
President Trump says ICE can fix shutdown-driven TSA lines starting Monday by moving agents into airports, but federal law does not allow ICE to simply take over checkpoint screening. Even if he tried, pulling immigration agents into TSA roles would weaken airport security while doing little to solve the staffing and training problem that caused the lines in the first place.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
