Republicans break ranks: Unified GOP denounces Trump's 'terrible' fourth bailout

Semafor reports that it isn’t just a smattering of Republicans who are trashing President Donald Trump’s proposed bailout of Spirit Airlines. It’s a united front — and they’re furious.

“It’s horses-——,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Semafor of Trump’s proposal of forcing taxpayers to invest $500 million in the failing company. “My God: 10 percent stake in Intel, 5 to 10 percent stakes in three or four mining companies, ‘golden share’ of US Steel — and now a half-a-billion-dollar stake in Spirit Airlines.”

Trump spent the brunt of his second term bending congressional Republicans to his will, but his iron gripe appears to stop at bailing out Spirit. Less than a week after Trump claimed his administration was “thinking about” buying a stake in the company, nearly a dozen GOP lawmakers — ranging from moderates to conservatives and from rank-and-file lawmakers to party leaders— told Semafor they either opposed or hated the plan.

“This would be a really bad idea. I don’t think you want the government owning airlines,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Semafor Tuesday, adding that he would be happy to “share” his view” with Trump administration at the first opportunity.

“It’s a strikingly unified front for congressional Republicans who break publicly with the president only on rare occasions, like when he suggested importing beef from Argentina last year,” reports Semafor. “It took most GOP lawmakers far longer to signal their discomfort with the Justice Department’s investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — and when they at last did, they were often more circumspect.”

But this time, Semafor reports the opposition is “swift and unanimous.”

“It is a terrible idea; corporate bailouts are a mistake,” Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Semafor. “The federal government doesn’t know a damn thing about running a budget airline — so I hope that this ill-conceived idea is put back on the shelf.”

Even Sen. Josh Hawley, (R-Mo.) a loyal Trump follower, dismissed the proposal.

“I don’t really want to help Spirit,” Hawley told Semafor. “Maybe I don’t get it. But Spirit is one of the worst in terms of how they treat their customers.”

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