Originally Posted by
ChinaDenver
Trump doesn't have the unilateral power to lend Spirit any money. Congress must pass a bill and appropriate. Congress has given the executive limited authority to unilaterally invest in companies, but it has to pertain to defense-related matters - like the rare earth investment last year. Congressional Republicans won't go for any bailout. Trump was able to invest in Intel last year because Congress already had appropriated the money in 2022 or 2023 for that exact purpose.
I agree and you’re right, there is no legal reason for Congress to act. This is all just political grandstanding. Trump knows the value of the assets and the status of their books. He also knows that if there was value there to be bought and sold later for a profit that the private sector would have already done so. This is just like his big production about buying Greenland. He’ll double down on a bunch of claims knowing that nothing will happen. He knows this isn’t going to get through Congress, and if it did that it wouldn’t stand up to a legal challenge from competitors. This is all theatrics so that he can claim that he really tried hard and had a plan to save the airline that Biden killed.