Governor Gavin Newsom tried to blame President Trump for cutting $4 billion from California’s high-speed rail disaster, but newly revealed records show the state itself torpedoed the project by repeatedly missing deadlines to purchase the trains required to keep federal funding flowing. The California High-Speed Rail Authority couldn’t even meet its own commitments, then quietly dropped its lawsuit against the administration after failing yet again to deliver.
The project, approved by voters in 2008 with promises of connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours at speeds up to 220 miles per hour, has instead become a monument to government incompetence. After burning through $15 billion over 16 years, the state has laid exactly zero tracks for the original plan. What remains is a gutted proposal connecting Merced to Bakersfield, a 170-mile stretch in the Central Valley that would require travelers to drive hours from Los Angeles just to board, then drive hours more to reach San Francisco after disembarking. The entire trip could be done faster by car on existing interstates.
When the Trump administration pulled the $4 billion last year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the reason crystal clear: Federal dollars are not a blank check, they come with a promise to deliver results. The state had promised to connect major metropolitan cities but could only deliver what federal officials called two random endpoints. There was simply no viable path to completing even this reduced segment on time.
Newsom called the funding withdrawal a political stunt and Attorney General Rob Bonta sued, claiming a politically motivated attack. But six months later, the state dropped its federal complaint entirely. The rail authority offered no explanation for the retreat, merely stating it hoped to work with a future administration because Trump was not a reliable partner.
The real reason, uncovered by CBS News investigators, was far more embarrassing. California had repeatedly failed to meet its own deadlines to buy the trains, a key requirement in the federal grant agreement, then quietly abandoned its lawsuit weeks after missing yet another deadline it had promised a federal judge it would meet.
The original price tag was projected at $126 billion for a system that now might connect two Central Valley cities nobody needs to travel between by high-speed rail. The Authority still cannot say when it expects to award the train contract, listing the date as TBD or to be determined. More than 18 months after the original deadline, they remain unable to complete the most basic procurement step for a railroad: buying the trains.
This is what happens when blue-state politicians treat taxpayer money as an entitlement rather than a responsibility. Newsom and his allies expected federal funding to flow regardless of performance, then cried foul when held accountable for their failures. The Trump administration demanded results, California delivered excuses, and now the state has nothing to show for nearly two decades of work except a lawsuit they surrendered and a project that may never carry a single passenger.
Providence watches over the bold.
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