OAN Staff Blake Wolf
12:46 PM – Thursday, July 17, 2025
President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have announced the termination of federal funding for California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s high-speed rail project.
The Trump administration is officially moving forward with the termination of the remaining $4 billion in unspent federal funds by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which was allocated to the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) for Newsom’s high-speed train.
In 2008, the project was approved with an initial estimated cost of $33 billion for an 800-mile high-speed rail — connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco — targeting completion by 2020.
However, since then, the projected costs have ballooned to over $100 billion, and not a single track has been laid, despite 16 years of so-called preparation work.
The project is now focusing on an initial 171-mile segment in the Central Valley, running from Merced to Bakersfield, known as the Early Operating Segment.
“To the Law abiding, Tax paying, Hardworking Citizens of the United States of America, I am thrilled to announce that I have officially freed you from funding California’s disastrously overpriced, ‘HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE.’ This boondoggle, led by the incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum, has cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we have received NOTHING in return except Cost Overruns,” Trump wrote on Wednesday.
“The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will. This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED. Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars will go towards this Newscum SCAM ever again. This was an ill-conceived and unnecessary project, and a total waste of Taxpayer money — But no more!” he added.
Duffy also issued a statement explaining the reasoning behind the federal decision to pull funds, stating: “After over a decade of failures, CHSRA’s mismanagement and incompetence has proven it cannot build its train to nowhere on time or on budget. It’s time for this boondoggle to die. President Trump and I will always fight to ensure your tax dollars only go to projects that accomplish great, big, beautiful things.”
Meanwhile, Governor Newsom responded to the announcement by criticizing Duffy in an X post.
“Won’t be taking advice from the guy who can’t keep planes in the sky,” Newsom wrote, referencing the ongoing issues with airline safety after a number of near misses at major airports under Duffy’s leadership.
“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 continued. “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.”
The announcement follows after the FRA released a 300-page report in June, exposing the number of missed deadlines, waste, and increasing costs to support their decision to pull federal funding.
The FRA is also reviewing several obligated and unobligated grants relating to the CHSRA’s project.
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