Gavin Newsom has been doing his best to try and avoid bad headlines after the Los Angeles wildfires.
But he’s now finding himself back in the headlines again, and the news isn’t good.
And a Trump official gave Gavin Newsom some bad news that had the California Governor seeing red.
Trump’s Transportation Secretary to investigate California high-speed rail fiasco
In 2008, California voters approved a ballot measure to build a high-speed train line between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The ambitious project was initially supposed to cost $20 billion and be completed by 2020.
But instead, it’s become one of the costliest and least successful boondoggles in American history.
The price of the project has skyrocketed to more than $130 billion and continues to rise.
And only 57 miles of train tracks have been laid, and the project might not be completed until the end of the 2030s, if ever.
In his first term, President Donald Trump canceled $1 billion in federal funding for the project that was authorized under former President Barack Obama.
But former President Joe Biden restored the funding and poured another $3.3 billion more in taxpayer money down the drain to help California build its high-speed rail line.
The American taxpayers have now forked over tens of billions of dollars for a project in California that will likely never become operational.
Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced that he has launched an investigation into just what happened to the federal funding that went into California’s failed high-speed rail project.
“I am directing my staff to review and determine whether the (California High-Speed Rail Authority) has followed through on the commitments it made to receive billions of dollars in federal funding,” Duffy said at a press conference in Los Angeles.
“If not, I will have to consider whether that money could be given to deserving infrastructure projects elsewhere in the United States.”
Where did all the money go?
California has so far spent nearly $16 billion to build just 57 miles of train tracks in 17 years.
Not one train has ever run on the tracks that have been laid so far.
“Who got the cash? Where did it go?” Duffy asked. “$16 billion is a lot of money. It’s going to be a hard stretch to see how that money was spent.”
Duffy also pointedly told California voters they should demand answers from Governor Gavin Newsom about the mismanaged project.
Congressman Kevin Kiley (R-CA 3) joined Duffy at the press conference.
He called the California high-speed rail project “the worst public infrastructure failure in U.S. history.”
“There is no plausible scenario where the cost to federal or state taxpayers can be justified,” Kiley said. “It is past time to stop throwing good money after bad, and we must formally end this project.”
Kiley has introduced legislation this year in the U.S. House to block any more federal funding from going to the failed rail project.
Left-wing protesters attempted to interrupt the press conference with chants demanding that the project be finished.
“It’s been 17 years and $16 billion and no rail has been built,” Duffy fired back. “So if you want to go protest somewhere. If you want to shout at someone, go to the governor’s mansion. Go talk to Democrats in the Legislature who have brought us this crappy project.”
Gavin Newsom doesn’t want to even try to explain to voters how he oversaw one of the biggest wastes of taxpayer money in history.
Especially as he considers a 2028 Presidential campaign.
