Gov. Newsom derails Trump’s call to return funding for bullet train project
A day after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to scale back the high-speed rail project, President Trump demanded that California return billions of dollars to the federal government.
In a tweet Wednesday, Trump said the state had been forced to cancel the project and referred to it as a “green disaster.”
Newsom fired back in his own tweet, decrying what he called “fake news.”
During his first State of the State address Tuesday, Newsom announced he was scaling back the $77-billion project. He said he supports finishing the controversial high-speed rail line between Bakersfield and Merced but needs to reassess the crucial legs connecting major urban centers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
“We’re building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond,” he said on Twitter. “This is CA’s money, allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back.”
Newsom also took the opportunity to make a dig at the president, questioning if he was “desperately searching for some wall $$??”
Twitter: @Brittny_Mejia
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