Spirit Airlines’ sudden collapse has left thousands of passengers and employees scrambling, and now the Trump administration is blaming a blocked Biden-era merger, arguing the airline might have survived if officials hadn’t intervened.
“History has now said it was the wrong decision,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.
“The DOJ should not have pursued litigation against the merger and, again, you wouldn’t have what’s unfolded today.”
Speaking to “Fox & Friends,” Duffy recounted how his predecessor, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, celebrated that the merger had been stopped in its tracks.
DUFFY BLAMES BIDEN-BUTTIGIEG TEAM FOR SPIRIT AIRLINES COLLAPSE AFTER BLOCKED MERGER
Buttigieg told CNN in 2023 that the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) history of not getting involved was “changing,” touting the effort to block the merger as a way to ensure passengers “have choices” and “access to low fares” while maintaining “competition.”
“But I agree with him in the sense that we do want choices. We do want competition,” Duffy said, reacting to the soundbite.
“That gives us the best price as consumers. But he made the wrong call. If he had taken a deep dive into Spirit and into JetBlue, he would have seen that that merger would have been better for customers, and he still said no to it.”
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Duffy proceeded to blast the Biden administration’s ideology as a whole, homing in on the merger and on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that have remained a point of contention among conservatives.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers who advocated for preventing the merger at the time, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have pointed fingers at the Trump administration for Spirit’s demise, arguing that higher fuel costs stemming from the Iran conflict have complicated operations.
Duffy fired back at that notion.
“I love that they try to play revisionist politics, they try to come after Donald Trump again. What do they want? A nuclear Iran?” he asked.
“They’re blaming fuel prices, but you and I both know that Democrats love higher energy prices. They’ve fought for four years to give us higher energy prices,” he added, pointing to high fuel costs in California.
“Now they’re trying to blame Trump, who wanted American energy dominance?” he added, calling it “insanity.”
Spirit halted all flights and shut down other operations in the early morning hours Saturday, displacing nearly 17,000 employees.
Federal officials and other airlines moved to assist passengers affected by the event.
