Will Trump wreck Spirit Airlines like he did Truth Social? | Opinion

• President Trump is considering a $500 million government bailout for Spirit Airlines, which faces challenges from rising fuel costs.
• Trump Media & Technology Group, which went public in 2024, has seen its stock value decline significantly.
• The company's own Truth Social AI stated the firm has not been successful for most investors.
• Truth Social AI also noted that a bailout for Spirit Airlines does not align with Trump's past campaign promises against corporate welfare.

The recent intersection of two business stories – both connected to President Donald Trump – reminded me about how the formerly bankrupt casino owner can crater a company but still cash out for himself.

Trump's reputation as a competent business owner was always a television-made myth, born of the reality TV show, "The Apprentice." Trump may know how to make money for himself. But if you invest in him, Trump also knows how to squander your cash.

I started thinking about this when the news broke that Trump is mulling a $500 million corporate bailout that would have the U.S. government take a stake in Spirit Airlines to save that company from another bankruptcy. The company, like the aviation industry worldwide, has faced challenges from rising fuel costs due to Trump's war of choice in Iran.

"We're thinking about doing it, helping them out, meaning bailing them out, or buying it," Trump said on April 23 about a Spirit Airlines bailout. "And when the price of the oil goes down, we'll sell it for a profit."

So Trumpian: Start a needless war that pushes an American company into bankruptcy and then anticipate taking credit for using our tax dollars to – maybe – fix the mess he made.

Congrats to Trump for fixing his own mess with our tax dollars

Something about all that rang a bell. Didn't I write something back in 2024 about aviation being part of Trump's long record of business flops?

Oh, right, that was my March 2024 column about Trump Media & Technology Group, the company he founded in 2021 to launch his social media site, Truth Social. That company issued investor warnings in Securities and Exchange Commission filings about Trump's previous crash-and-burn business ventures, including his airline, Trump Shuttle.

Here's how that went, Trump's company wrote in a 2024 SEC filing: "Trump Shuttle, Inc., launched by President Trump in 1989, defaulted on its loans in 1990 and ceased to exist by 1992."

Yikes. Talk about turbulence. Spirit Airlines, in its current – albeit messy – version, has been around since 1992. The Trump Shuttle only flew for three years.

Things are kinda bumpy over at Trump Media & Technology Group these days as well. The company, which Trump took public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2024, on April 21 ousted its CEO, Devin Nunes, a former Republican member of Congress from California.

The company's news release about that ouster offered praise for Nunes but no explanation for why he had to go.

But – how lucky for us? – Trump Media & Technology Group got into the artificial intelligence game in 2025 with Truth Social AI, which lets us ask the president's favorite social media site all kinds of questions.

Truth Social AI told the truth about Trump's success

It's never a promising sign when a CEO gets the boot. So here's what I asked Truth Social AI: Has Trump Media & Technology Group been successful for investors?

Truth Social AI replied quickly with this: The company "has not been successful for most investors, despite early optimism around the company's public listing."

Truth Social AI noted that the company's stock once hit $70.90 per share, but since then has wiped out "more than $6 billion in investor value." The stock, traded as DJT (Trump's initials) was worth less than $10 on April 24.

Truth Social AI also told me that the company "has also disclosed substantial doubt" about whether it will have the money to cover its debts, and that the "initial stock surge appears to have been driven primarily by speculative trading rather than business fundamentals."

As for Trump, who is the largest stockholder in Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social AI pointed out that he "transferred nearly $4 billion" of his shares to a trust in 2024, "a move that could signal concerns about the company's long-term prospects."

There are legitimate concerns, when doing research with AI agents, about "hallucinations" in the results. But Truth Social AI provided eight links to two pro-Trump media outlets, Fox Business and The Washington Times, to substantiate its findings.

While we were at it, I figured we'd see what Truth Social AI thought about Trump's notion to bail out Spirit Airlines with $500 million of our tax dollars.

So I asked: Is President Donald Trump's proposal to bailout Spirit Airlines in keeping with his campaign promises that he made in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections? 

Here's what Truth Social AI told me: "President Donald Trump's proposal to bail out Spirit Airlines does not align with his core campaign promises from the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections."

Truth Social AI noted that Trump, since 2016, has focused instead on "economic nationalism, tax cuts, deregulation and reducing corporate welfare while criticizing bailouts for large firms as favoritism toward elites."

Trump did support some bailouts during his first term amid the COVID-19 pandemic but framed that as "emergency relief, not routine bailouts," Truth Social AI said. And while running again in 2024, Trump was back to "promises of no handouts to failing companies," Truth Social AI added.

Again, Truth Social AI substantiated its results with links to 10 Fox News stories.

If Trump tries to use our tax dollars to do to Spirit Airlines the same thing he used investor money to do to Trump Media & Technology Group, you might think about taking the bus on your next trip. Truth Social AI told me it can help make those sorts of travel plans.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on Bluesky, @bychrisbrennan.bsky.social, and on X, @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.