Not a good idea to bail out struggling airlines
Amid a war of choice that is hemorrhaging money, President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a $500 million bailout for Spirit Airlines.
After a year of the weakest job growth in America since 2020 — another year Trump was president — Trump is suddenly concerned about the loss of 14,000 jobs. This from a man who, through his DOGE program, personally orchestrated the loss of hundreds of thousands of government jobs.
Trump would “love somebody to buy Spirit.” Perhaps he is unaware that the government he now heads blocked JetBlue from doing precisely that in 2022 because it would “hurt price-sensitive travelers.”
Perhaps he was unaware of the likely impact on price-sensitive travelers of a war of choice against a country containing the world’s third-largest crude oil reserves and controlling the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of the world’s oil flows.
Trump might bail out Spirit or perhaps just buy it. That’s what we need — the same government that runs the perpetually unprofitable Amtrak running an airline that has filed for bankruptcy twice in the last two years and lost money consistently since 2020.
There are many good uses for $500 million. Bailing out a struggling company is never one of them.
MICHAEL C. MONSON, GAINESVILLE
Trump’s venture in Iran leads to stalemate and quagmire
We didn’t have to be in this Iran war — which is supposedly about its nuclear threat. The U.S. had an effective agreement in 2015 controlling nuclear capabilities with inspections; Trump killed the treaty based on his making a better deal (he never did).
Trump claimed that his 2025 attack on Iran nuclear facilities destroyed their nuclear capacity. Since that capacity is the justification for war, that was false. Instigated by the stronger personality of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wimpish Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth trying to prove his manhood, Trump may have thought that a quick victory over Iran would improve his political fortunes (all that he ever cares about).
With a depleted weapons stock, a fool’s venture gone bad, American/worldwide disapproval and the sacrifice of money that could benefit America’s fiscal future, Trump has led us down the rabbit hole of stalemate and quagmire. Trump is left with either empty threats or war criminal acts against civilian infrastructure.
The solution will not come from taking the pompous ass approach. What would you do?
JOHN W. SHACKLETON JR., ATLANTA
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