There’s a war waging over what the Spirit Airlines failure means politically, with each side trying to claim significant turf. Some of the claims are fair, and others are not .

Here’s DOT Secretary Sean Duffy blaming Biden DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg (a potential future Presidential candidate) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (who championed blocking JetBlue buying Spirit – and seemingly most mergers ).

A long time ago, a merger was proposed…

One that may have saved a struggling airline…

But the Empire had other plans @PeteButtigieg @SenWarren pic.twitter.com/4jEt3akPyO

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) May 4, 2026

The Biden administration’s antitrust guru was FTC chair Lina Khan, and the intellectual home of her work is the American Economic Liberties Project . Their Director of Research has been on a tear with tweets that are misleading and disingenuous .…