Trump announces end to federal funding for California high-speed rail project

President Donald Trump announced that his administration will no longer provide federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project, calling it “a total waste of taxpayer money.”

“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 said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. “Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a single penny in federal dollars will go towards this Newscum scam ever again.”

Trump claimed the project had cost taxpayers “hundreds of billions of dollars” without delivering a completed rail system. “The railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” he said.

Following Trump’s announcement, the U.S. Department of Transportation formally confirmed the decision. In a statement, the agency said it had terminated approximately $4 billion in unspent federal funding for the California high-speed rail project.

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducted an extensive compliance review and determined that the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) failed to meet its obligations under the terms of its federal grant agreements.

“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.

California voters approved a $10 billion bond in 2008 to fund a high-speed rail system originally projected to cost $33 billion and connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020. After years of delays and cost overruns, the project has been scaled back to a 171-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield in the Central Valley, with an estimated cost of up to $35 billion and a target completion date of 2033.

Governor Newsom has not yet responded to the announcement.