President Donald Trump’s feud with California Governor Gavin Newsom is hitting the Golden State’s long-awaited high-speed train project with yet another setback.
The U.S. The Transportation Department announced Wednesday that it is rescinding $4 billion in funding for a bullet train project that aims to connect Los Angeles with San Francisco.
“Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy — a former cast member of MTV’s The Real World: Boston and ex–Fox Business co-host — in a press release. “Federal dollars are not a blank check; they come with a promise to deliver results.”
The California High-Speed Rail project, approved by voters in 2008, was pitched as an 800-mile rail system linking Northern and Southern California, with trains traveling at speeds up to 220 miles per hour. A planned second phase would extend the line further, reaching Sacramento in the north and San Diego in the south. The project was initially projected to cost $33 billion and be completed by 2020. But after years of delays and escalating construction costs, the estimated price tag has now surged past $100 billion.
Governor Newsom and other California officials are not happy with the news and have signaled that they could take legal action.
“Trump wants to hand China the future and abandon the Central Valley. We won’t let him. With projects like the Texas high-speed rail failing to take off, we are miles ahead of others,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re now in the track-laying phase and building America’s only high-speed rail. California is putting all options on the table to fight this illegal action.”
California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri, who is spearheading the project, also called the move “illegal,” stating that the grants are legally binding and the Authority has met all its obligations.
For his part, Trump posted on social media that he has “freed” the citizens of America from “California’s disastrously overpriced, “HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE.”
“The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED.”
This marks the latest clash between the Trump administration and Governor Gavin Newsom, who have sparred over everything from the state’s transgender rights laws to the deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles.
Newsom also fired back at Duffy after the Transportation Secretary posted a video on X criticizing the high-speed rail project.
“Won’t be taking advice from the guy who can’t keep planes in the sky,” Newsom wrote in response.
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