WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday said he’s still weighing a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines.
The president didn’t offer details about the proposal but told reporters as he prepared to leave the White House for a trip to Florida that he would have an announcement on the matter Friday or Saturday.
“We’re looking at it. If we could do it, we’ll do it. But only if it’s a good deal,” Trump said.
Trump said he would like to save jobs at the airline and his administration gave Spirit “a final proposal.”
“We’re looking at Spirit and if we can help them, we will. But we have to come first,” he said.
He likened it to the deal his administration struck to make the U.S. government into a major stockholder of semiconductor manufacturer Intel, but said it was “a different kind of a thing.”
Last week, Trump floated the idea of a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit and suggested the U.S. government could later resell the airline for a profit once oil prices pushed up by the Iran war drop.
A lawyer for Spirit, meanwhile, told a U.S. Bankruptcy Court a week ago that the airline was in advanced talks with the government on a financing deal that would allow it to exit Chapter 11 protection.
Supporters of the airline’s rescue included labor groups representing Spirit’s pilots and flight attendants, who argued that allowing the low-cost carrier to collapse would hurt workers and push fares higher.
Critics, including both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, have raised concerns about the use of taxpayer dollars and questioned whether federal support would amount to a bailout of a company unlikely to recover.
Spirit has struggled with losses for years. The airline filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2024 and again in August 2025.
With the Iran war driving up jet fuel costs for all airlines, creditors last month expressed doubts about Spirit’s ability to keep operating, raising the possibility that the airline recognized for its bright yellow planes would be forced to sell its assets and stop flying.
Yamat reported from Las Vegas.
FILE - The tail of a Spirit Airlines Airbus A320 is shown as the plane prepares to take off from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Jan. 19, 2021, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he was “not satisfied” with Iran’s latest proposal in negotiations to end war between the countries, rejecting the plan almost as soon as it was delivered.
“They want to make a deal, I’m not satisfied with it, so we’ll see what happen,” Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.
Iran handed over its latest proposal for negotiations to mediators in Pakistan on Thursday night, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The shaky three-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran appears to be still holding though both countries have traded accusations of violations.
Trump did not elaborate on what he saw as the latest proposal’s shortcomings. “They’re asking for things I can’t agree to,” he said.
Negotiations have continued by phone after Trump called off his envoys’ trip to Pakistan last week, the president said. He expressed frustration with Iran’s leadership, describing it as fractured.
“It’s a very disjointed leadership,” he said. “They all want to make a deal, but they’re all messed up.”
While the ceasefire has largely halted fighting in Iran, the U.S. and Iran are locked in a standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas passes in peacetime. A U.S. Navy blockade stopping Iran's tankers from getting out to sea has Iran’s economy reeling. The world economy is also under pressure as Iran maintains its chokehold on the strait.
Trump earlier this week floated a new plan to reopen the critical passageway used by America's Gulf allies to export their oil and gas.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a flurry of calls on Friday with many of his regional counterparts, including from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Azerbaijan, to brief them on his country’s latest initiatives to end the war, according to his social media.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also spoke over phone Friday with Araghchi. They discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and long-term security arrangements, Kallas’ office said in a statement. Kallas also has been in contact with the EU's Gulf partners.
Pakistan officials have said efforts were continuing to ease tensions between Iran and the U.S. Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that a response from Iran was still awaited.
Earlier this week, Trump told Axios that he had rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the strait in exchange for the U.S. Navy lifting its blockade of Iranian ports.
The Iranian proposal would have pushed negotiations on the country’s nuclear program to a later date, two regional officials said earlier this week. The officials with knowledge of the proposal spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations between Iranian and Pakistani officials.
One of the major reasons Trump has said he went to war was to deny Iran the ability to develop nuclear weapons.
Since the war began on Feb. 28, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, and more than 2,600 people in Lebanon, where new fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah broke out two days after the war started, according to authorities.
Additionally, 24 people have died in Israel and more than 20 in Gulf Arab states. Seventeen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.
Ezzidin reported from Cairo and Binkley from Washington. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.
Cargo ships are seen at sea near the Strait of Hormuz, as viewed from a rocky shoreline near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
Cargo ships are seen at sea in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, as viewed from a rocky shoreline near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026.(AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
An Emirati patrol boat, left, is near a tanker anchored in the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from a coastal road near Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
A man stands in the water, appearing to fish, as bulk carriers, cargo ships, and service vessels line the horizon in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, April 27, 2026.(Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)
