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President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced the termination of federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project, calling it an “overpriced” failure that has wasted taxpayer money without delivering results.
“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,’” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social.
The project, backed by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, has long drawn criticism over mounting costs and delays. Trump said the initiative has burned through billions of taxpayer dollars with little to show for it.
“The railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” Trump added. “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!”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that the Federal Railroad Administration has officially rescinded approximately $4 billion in unspent federal funds designated for the California high-speed rail initiative.
In addition to canceling $4 billion in unspent federal funds for the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Secretary Duffy has instructed the Federal Railroad Administration to review other grants tied to the project. The Department of Transportation will also collaborate with the Department of Justice to review the results of the FRA’s compliance review, which may lead to efforts to recover additional funding and address other potential violations of federal law.
According to Duffy, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has spent an estimated $15 billion over the last 16 years without laying a single mile of high-speed track.
“This is California’s fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check – they come with a promise to deliver results. 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,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy.
“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,” he added.