Trump Pulls $1 Billion From California
TTN
President Trump has followed through on his threat to pull funding from California for a debacle of a rail project the state is overseeing.
According to The Daily Wire:
On Thursday, the Trump administration audaciously decided to flip a proverbial middle finger at the state of California and its socialite Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. The middle finger came in the form of Trump's Department of Transportation nixing a whopping $928.6 million in previously loosely agreed-upon federal funding to help assist California's fledgling high-speed rail project.
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Gov. Newsom has already lambasted the Trump administration's rescission of previously agreed-upon funding as both politically motivated and, indeed, illegal. "This is California’s money, appropriated by Congress, and we will vigorously defend it in court," Newsom said. "The Trump administration’s action is illegal and a direct assault on California, our green infrastructure, and the thousands of Central Valley workers who are building this project," he continued.
As the Journal also notes, the Trump administration had already previously funded the California high-speed rail project to the tune of $2.5 billion.
The Transportation Department appears to be correct that California has abandoned its original San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route. Instead, as the Journal previously reported in February, Newsom said in his State of the State annual address that "he instead would focus on completing a first stage, already under way, that would run between the agricultural cities of Bakersfield and Merced." That first leg of the project runs roughly 119 miles.
Newsom began as governor in January and was previously the Mayor of San Francisco. It looks like he and Trump will battle into the future.
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