California to Trump: We're Not Giving the Money Back

Gov. Newsom calls Trump tweet about bullet train project 'fake news'
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 14, 2019 7:20 AM CST
California to Trump: We're Not Giving the Money Back
This Jan. 24, 2019, photo shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom in Sacramento, Calif.   (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

President Trump once called then-candidate Gavin Newsom a "clown" who supported open borders, notes USA Today. Now that Newsom is governor of California, their relationship hasn't improved much. Newsom has accused the president of "fake news" over a Trump tweet about the state's scaled-down high-speed rail project, reports NBC News. In his Wednesday tweet, Trump said the state "has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars." He added that California owes the feds $3.5 billion over the "'green' disaster" and "we want that money back now." Newsom then responded with a tweet of his own. For starters, the state hasn't canceled the project, he wrote.

A 119-mile section between Merced and Bakersfield in the Central Valley will be completed, and the state will continue environmental studies on future sections. "This is CA's money, allocated by Congress for this project," wrote Newsom. "We're not giving it back." As a final jab, he suggested Trump was "desperately searching" for money to build a border wall. As Business Insider explains, the truth here is "somewhere in the middle." Earlier this week, in his state-of-the-state address, Newsom dramatically scaled down the project, saying it had become too expensive to complete as originally envisioned. "There simply isn't a path to get from Sacramento to San Diego, let alone from San Francisco to LA," he said in the speech. "I wish there were." (Newsom also pulled state National Guard troops from the border.)

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