Trump administration pulls $4B in federal funding for California's bullet train project [View all]

Source: NBC News/AP

July 16, 2025, 10:46 PM EDT / Source: The Associated Press


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Trump administration revoked federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project on Wednesday, intensifying uncertainty about how the state will make good on its long-delayed promise of building a bullet train to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The U.S. Transportation Department announced it was pulling back $4 billion in funding for the project, weeks after signaling it would do so. Overall, a little less than a quarter of the project’s funding has come from the federal government. The rest has come from the state, mainly through a voter-approved bond and money from its cap-and-trade program.

President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy both have slammed the project as a “train to nowhere.” “The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED.”

The loss marks the latest blow to California by the Trump administration, which has blocked a first-in-the-nation rule to phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars, launched investigations into university admission policies and threatened to pull funding over transgender girls being allowed to compete in girls sports. It also comes as rail project leaders are seeking private investment to help pay for its estimated price tag of more than $100 billion.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-pulls-4-billion-funding-california-bullet-train-project-rcna219248