On a brisk Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump made a move that was both dramatic and inevitable: he pulled the plug on federal funding for California’s beleaguered high-speed rail project — a venture long synonymous with delays, cost overruns, and political grandstanding.
The decision not only drew a sharp line through the budget but marked a symbolic rebuke to California Governor Gavin Newsom and his persistent promotion of what Trump labeled the “High-Speed Train to Nowhere.”
The timing of Trump’s announcement — delivered in characteristically unfiltered fashion on Truth Social — came after months of quiet maneuvering from California Democrats. In late December, just before Trump returned to office, key lawmakers including Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, along with Reps. Jim Costa and Zoe Lofgren, submitted a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Their request? A final tranche of $536 million in federal funds to shore up a project that had already ballooned far beyond its original cost projections.
That letter acknowledged the staggering $28.8 billion already committed to the project — with $6.8 billion of it from the federal government — and made the case that the funding would support tunnel design and future construction through California’s notoriously complex Central Valley terrain.
In their view, the train would symbolize not just mobility, but equity, sustainability, and national competitiveness.
But for Trump, and many of his supporters, the only thing the bullet train has moved is public patience. Once projected to cost $33 billion, the estimated price tag now hovers around $100 billion, with vast stretches of track incomplete, operational dates perpetually delayed, and no trains carrying passengers.
“We have received NOTHING in return,” Trump declared. “This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED.”
He thanked Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for ensuring “not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars” would reach what he derisively called the “Newscum SCAM,” signaling a final break in federal-state cooperation on the issue.