Trump and Duffy Continue Assault on California and the Environment, Officially Cancel Federal Funding for High-Speed Rail

In yet another gift to the oil industry, United States President Donald Trump and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced the cancellation of $4 billion in federal grants to the California High-Speed Rail project awarded under previous administrations. The move will likely lead to another round of lawsuits as California seeks legal remedies to protect itself from federal assault on multiple fronts.

Trump and Republican Congressional leaders have made clear that one of the reasons California has stayed in Washington’s cross hairs is their personal dislike of Governor Gavin Newsom. The public statements surrounding this week’s announcement make it clear that dynamic is very much in play, which will certainly play into the state’s legal strategy.

Duffy blames “Gavin Newsom and the complicit Democrats” for the cost overruns and delays despite Newsom being the third governor to oversee the project. The first, when the cost estimates were made that low-balled the overall cost of the project actually occurred when a Republican, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was governor. Trump manages to work his favorite childish slur for the Governor, “Newscum,” twice into his unhinged Truth Social post.

One of the great ironies of this timing, which surely has more to do with the President’s attempts to distract from his incomprehensible statements on the ending of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation or the sad withdrawal of thousands of bored national guard troops who wasted six weeks of their lives guarding nothing in Los Angeles on his orders, is that the CAHSR project is accomplishing a lot as construction continues in the Central Valley, in the halls of Sacramento and with completed environmental reviews. Some of the highlights include:

All environmental reviews spanning 463 miles from Los Angeles to the Bay Area are now complete,
Significant early benefits of CAHSR money for commuters were realized when the electrification of Caltrain was completed late last year,
In January, the state celebrated the groundbreaking for the railhead, allowing the CAHSR Authority to begin laying track,
In the recently passed budget, the legislature and governor’s office committed to roughly $4 billion in funding for CAHSR each year for the next decade,
There are currently 171 miles under active construction and design, 15,500 jobs created, and more than 50 major structures completed.

“Canceling these grants without cause isn’t just wrong — it’s illegal,” said CAHSRA CEO Ian Choudri. “These are legally binding agreements, and the Authority has met every obligation, as confirmed by repeated federal reviews, as recently as February 2025.