[Text/Observer Network Liu Chenghui] The already bad relationship between US President Trump and California Governor Newsom has become even worse due to the chaos in Los Angeles, with the California high-speed rail project also being drawn into this mutual criticism.
Recent officials from the Trump administration have put pressure on Newsom regarding the high-speed rail project, criticizing California for "spending $7 billion over 15 years without laying a single track," and threatening to revoke $4 billion in federal funding.
Trump launched an attack at the White House on June 9, criticizing California under Newsom's leadership as being in a mess, especially that the high-speed rail project should never have been built: "You can fly there for $2, so why build a railway?"
In the White House press conference, Trump first stated that the federal government had effectively controlled the situation of riots.
"The situation could have turned out very badly, it was heading in the wrong direction, but now it is moving in the right direction," Trump said. "We hope to get Gavin's (Newsom) support because Gavin will be the biggest beneficiary when we solve the problem."
Trump answering questions from reporters at the White House
Next, Trump targeted the California high-speed rail project.
"His state is in a mess, and I hope someone will intervene in the railway project. To be honest, this project should never have been built," Trump said. "You can fly there for $2, so why build this railway? They are doing this."
"You can drive, or choose many other transportation methods. Do you know, if they did research, even providing the most luxurious limousine service for each passenger, the most expensive, chauffeur-driven, white-gloved luxury car round trip service, we could save billions of dollars instead of building this huge construction project."
Trump boasted that he is a person who can control costs well and has never encountered cost overruns like those of the California high-speed rail project.
"What you usually see is a cost overrun of 20%, 50%, 100%... but this project has overrun by tens of times! No one even knows the exact number, they have no concept."
"They have now set the terminal station in the wilderness of Los Angeles, and the intermediate stop is located in 'nowhere'!"
"Why do we need to get involved in this? The project was already bad before him (Newsom), but he really messed it up."
Funding tug-of-war, "Trump wants to use this to harass Newsom"
As one of the "difficult" infrastructure issues in the United States, the history of the California high-speed rail project can be traced back to 2008.
The US government has long planned a high-speed rail project connecting two major cities in California, San Francisco and Los Angeles, about 800 miles (approximately 1287 kilometers) long, with a top design speed of 350 kilometers per hour (220 miles per hour).
The initial plan was to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco, with an estimated cost of $33 billion, which has now soared to $128 billion.
On April 15, 2025, a suspension arch bridge construction site aerial view in Fresno County, California. Visual China
In 2008, the project officially started under the administration of former Governor Schwarzenegger. California voters approved nearly $10 billion in bond proceeds as construction funds that year. In 2015, the first phase of the project began construction.
However, in February 2019, newly appointed Governor Newsom announced that due to the full-line cost of the project soaring to $77.3 billion, delays, and concerns over management, the high-speed rail project would be shortened to a section between Merced and Bakersfield in Central Valley, approximately 171 miles (about 275 kilometers).
Currently, the cost of just this section is as high as $35 billion, exceeding the original budget of the entire project. There is also a $7 billion funding gap.
Trump announced during his first term that the project was a "green disaster" and a "world-class failure," formally canceling the $929 million in federal funding provided by the Obama administration for the California high-speed rail project in May 2019.
After President Biden took office, the $1 billion in funding for the California high-speed rail project was restored, and another $3.1 billion was approved.
Now, these two amounts totaling about $4 billion have become leverage for Trump to threaten California.
In February this year, the Federal Railroad Administration stated that, following the instructions of Transportation Secretary Duffy, a review of the California high-speed rail project would begin to determine the use of funds for the Central Valley section.
On June 4, Duffy issued a statement criticizing the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) for spending nearly $7 billion in taxpayer money over the past 15 years without laying "even a foot of track."
He threatened that the California high-speed rail office must respond by July 11 or the Trump administration would cancel the additional $4 billion in federal funding.
According to the Los Angeles Times, California denied these criticisms, stating that the project was making substantial progress and that "although federal cooperation is crucial, the majority of the funding comes from the state government, with 82% from the state government and 18% from federal grants. Governor Newsom's budget proposal plans to invest at least $1 billion annually over the next 20 years, sufficient to ensure the completion of the first segment of the project."
However, on June 7, The New York Times cited several analysts as saying that the Trump administration's threat to revoke $4 billion in federal funding means that the first passenger service of the California high-speed rail may be delayed by at least ten years, exacerbating the existing delays and funding shortages. Losing federal funding will leave the project in a "funding famine," and may not even complete the initial segment construction in Central Valley.
A diagram of the California high-speed rail project. Note: The red box indicates the major cities originally planned to be connected, and the green circle shows the short section left after Governor Newsom reduced the project. Los Angeles Times map
"I don't think we will see electric trains running on the tracks between Merced and Bakersfield for a very long time," said Louis Thompson, former chairman of the California High-Speed Rail Project Review Panel. "Without federal funds, it won't be completed within ten years. That's the reality, and reality is painful."
"Losing this funding may mean they cannot continue construction, at least not at the current pace and scale," said Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at UC Berkeley School of Law. "If there is a huge funding gap, it will mean layoffs and eventually cause the project to stall at some point."
This is just the issue of funding. Even if California waits until Trump leaves office and new presidents provide funding, it will take several years to sign contracts for the power system and high-speed train sets, and equipment delivery and testing will take even longer.
California officials from the Federal Railroad Administration pointed out in the compliance review that the project violated the grant agreement in nine areas, including failing to meet milestones on time, excessive change orders, overly optimistic ridership projections, etc. The review report stated that the initial segment line construction cannot be completed before 2033.
The California high-speed rail initially expected an annual passenger volume of 100 million, but has now been cut to one-third.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation responsible for researching new technologies during Trump's first term, said that even if the system is built, it may not be profitable, and people may be unwilling to use it.
She pointed out that since the pandemic, public transportation usage has dropped significantly, "people prefer driving."
David Freeman Engstrom, a professor of law at Stanford University, believes that the long-standing political opposition between California Democratic Governor and Trump may be a factor in the decision to cancel the funding, but this is unlikely to be a basis for a successful legal challenge.
"If California argues that the termination of funding is merely to 'retaliate against Governor Newsom,' I don't think the court will accept such reasoning," he admitted.
But he candidly admitted that, leaving legal issues aside, Trump clearly sees terminating funding as a way to "harass Newsom."
"By rekindling the high-speed rail issue, Trump wants to emphasize again: Liberal California is the problem, not the solution, and California must sort itself out first."
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Source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7514244914301960713/
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