Trump likes the idea of the government owning some US companies but took a pass on Spirit Airlines
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had no reservations about a government takeover Spirit AirlinesSo long as the terms can be portrayed as a financial victory for the latest addition to a taxpayer-backed group of business interests.
But the budget carrier halted operations on Saturday after reaching an impasse with the administration, which increasingly views the government as an activist investor that will shape the path of the U.S. economy.
While Trump has long railed against Democrats and other opponents communists — the antithesis of free market morality This helped America become a superpower – since returning to the Oval Office, it has shown that the government owns some of the means of production.
Trump sees opportunities in preserving legacy trademark companies: Intel and possibly turn a tidy profit for Uncle Sam. The Republican president sees investments as critical to economic security and a symbol of his success deal making skillsHe overturned the GOP’s dogma that the government should avoid picking winners and losers.
In a mood, a Cash-strapped budget airline facing volatility Fuel costs caused by Iran warTrump told reporters on Friday that the government would buy shares in the company. only if it’s a good deal.” His objection to the bailout was positive rather than ideological.
“If we can help them, we will,” Trump said. “But we must come first.” Trump did not immediately address the airline’s closure.
He compared the potential acquisition to an earlier move to buy shares in Intel. Trump watched the computer chip maker’s shares closely. “I’m proud of this company because I take responsibility for the fact that the United States has generated over $30 Billion in the last 90 days on this stock alone,” Trump said on social media this week.
Depends on state shares in companies
Communism has a great influence in countries such as China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. Governments play a central role in the provision of goods and services. Throughout its history, the ideology has shifted from the premise that the government should own all property to a system in which the government can own or control large corporations.
In the United States, except for recessions, major government interventions in the private sector were unusual. Trump aides say his interventions are necessary to compete against China’s industrial heft, but the president has often tied corporate America to his administration.
He used his tariffs to encourage foreign investment and claimed to control how money was spent. The government is a “golden share” Limiting what Japan’s Nippon Steel can do after the acquisition US Steel. Management brokered a deal for cuts Sale of computer chips to China with Nvidia and AMD.
The government invested during the Trump era rare earth company MP Materials Breaking China’s control over metallic elements needed for smartphones, cars and other technologies. Add to these deals for shares Lithium America, Trinity Metals And Vulcan Elements as well as preferential financing for westinghouse And ReElement Technologies.
Management took a step back End of state conservatorship From mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Trump says they’re more valuable now because they’re holding on Privatizing companies in the first term. “I would feel like an idiot if I sold,” he said Friday.
He is accessible to CEOs, speaks to them regularly on the phone, but can also demand that they support his agenda. He told Walmart: not to raise prices He suggested that he would favorably “remember” companies that refused to seek refunds because of their tariffs and after the Supreme Court ruled that their tariffs were illegal.
Logic and ego are seen in Trump’s moves
Trump’s desire to raise funds and retain ownership stakes in the private sector is a byproduct of an identity in overdrive, critics say.
“This is entirely a reflection of a transaction-oriented president who wants unilateral control of the economy,” said Tad DeHaven, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. “At the end of the day, it’s about power, it’s about oppression, it’s about control.”
Others see some logic in the competition Chinese manufacturers It could disappear without making a profit, undercutting factories in other industrialized countries and risking America’s pre-eminence as a military power and technological innovator.
Sujai Shivakumar of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said the investment in Intel was “a strategic move necessitated by China’s growth as an economic peer and rival.”
“The point is that we should not sacrifice our national economic and industrial framework in the name of ‘free market’ or other ideologies,” he said. “Pragmatism, in its various forms of industrial and innovation policy, has always been a feature of our economic system since the beginning of our republic.”
Republicans traditionally avoided picking winners and losers
During the 2024 election campaign, Trump portrayed Democrat Joe Biden’s administration as communist and socialist.
“We will throw the communists out,” Trump said in his speech in Pennsylvania on April 13, 2024. “We will save our country from these oppressors and traitors forever.”
Biden has frequently emphasized his belief in the power of the free market to help the middle class and believes his efforts to raise corporate tax rates will help achieve that. “I’m a capitalist,” he said in his last State of the Union address, saying he wasn’t against corporations making profits. “That’s great; just pay your share of taxes,” he said.
Biden administration elongated loans and grants to chip manufacturers and sought to strengthen the government’s role as a customer of American businesses. However, an important difference is that investments Laws passed by Congress.
The White House argues that Trump’s unilateral approach is more agile and says the funding for his investments comes from sources previously approved by Congress.
Trump specifically took loans and grants from Biden’s 2022 CHIPS and Science Act and turned them into a law. $11.1 billion purchase of Intel shares. In his 2025 speech to Congress, Trump called the CHIPS Act a “horrible, terrible thing” and suggested that the Republican majority withdraw funds to close the budget deficit.
Management of Spirit Airlines, which went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, was considering a $500 million deal that would give the government a stake in the Florida-based discount airline. Other budget carriers are also interested in similar packages.
That possibility has drawn objections from Republicans like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Trump had told reporters in the Oval Office that he wanted to save jobs at Spirit Airlines and that “when oil prices drop, we will sell it for a profit.”
Government investment could help level the playing field for American companies competing against subsidized foreign businesses, said Monica Gorman, managing director at Crowell Global Advisors, who is helping lead manufacturing and industrial policy in the Biden White House.
But Gorman said it’s unclear whether the Trump administration fully grasps the risks of “making some bad bets.” He emphasized the importance of formalizing the process through legislation rather than relying on Trump’s whims.
“Congress really needs to step in and design a legal framework for U.S. industrial policy that governs equity stakes as well as other mechanisms like loans and grants,” he said. “These are all important tools in the U.S. industrial policy toolkit, but we need more guidance on when and how to use them.”
