Newsom Blamed Trump for the $4 Billion. The Records Show California Missed Its Own Deadlines — Three Times.
When the Trump administration pulled roughly $4 billion from California’s high-speed rail project in July 2025, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) called it a “political stunt” and a “gift to China.” A records-based investigation published August 2, 2026 by CBS News California Investigates reporter Julie Watts found something that fight had obscured: before any federal money moved, the California High-Speed Rail Authority had already blown the deadline the grant was built around.
The Authority was required to execute a contract to buy trains by December 31, 2024. It didn’t. It then told a federal judge, in a sworn filing, that it would do so by December 1, 2025. It didn’t — it canceled the board meeting where the contract was to be approved. It was required to hand the Legislature a 2026 Business Plan by May 1, 2026. It didn’t.
As of August 2026 — more than eighteen months past the original federal deadline — the Authority still lists the trainset contract award date as “TBD.”
- Zero miles of high-speed track laid, and zero trains in revenue service, after 16-plus years and roughly $15 billion spent — CBS News California Investigates / USDOT
- $33B → $126.2B the San Francisco–Los Angeles price tag voters were given in 2008 versus the estimate in the Authority's own 2026 Business Plan — roughly 3.8x — LAO / CHSRA 2026 Business Plan
- ~$4.18B federal grant money terminated across July 16 and August 26, 2025 and now forfeited — USDOT / CNBC
In November 2008, California voters passed Proposition 1A, authorizing $9.95 billion in bonds — $9.0 billion for construction and $950 million for connecting rail. The pitch attached to that vote was specific: 800 miles of track, 220 mph service, San Francisco to Los Angeles in under three hours, a full system cost of $33 billion, and completion by 2020.
Six years past that completion date, roughly $15 billion has been spent. There are 119 miles of Central Valley segment under construction — viaducts, grade separations, and civil works, not high-speed track. There is no revenue service and not one operating train. The clearest statement of that gap did not come from a critic in Washington. It came from the project’s own inspector general, speaking to CBS on August 2.
“There's been a railyard created that has track on it, but it is not high-speed rail track.”
Ben Belnap · Inspector General, California High-Speed Rail · CBS News California Investigates, August 2, 2026
The first deadline came from the Biden-era Federal-State Partnership grant agreement, awarded in 2024: execute a contract for trainsets by December 31, 2024. CBS’s records review found the Authority never did. Ian Choudri, who took over as the Authority’s chief executive in August 2024, changed the trainset specifications shortly after arriving, resetting a procurement that was already against the clock. Choudri declined repeated CBS interview requests.
The second deadline was California’s own. After Attorney General Rob Bonta (D-CA) sued the U.S. Department of Transportation on July 17, 2025 to reverse the termination, the Authority represented to a federal judge in a sworn filing that it would execute the trainset contract by December 1, 2025. That date passed with no contract; the Authority canceled the board meeting at which the contract was to be approved. Three weeks later, on December 23, 2025 — two days before Christmas — California voluntarily dismissed its own lawsuit. Bonta’s office declined to explain why.
The third deadline is statutory. The Authority owed the Legislature its 2026 Business Plan by May 1, 2026. It arrived June 1. California State Transportation Secretary Toks Omishakin, a Newsom appointee, did not dispute the pattern when asked about the criticism.
“There were mistakes made. Some of the criticisms on this project, I think, are very fair.”
Toks Omishakin · California State Transportation Secretary
The termination did not arrive without warning. On June 4, 2025, the Federal Railroad Administration — then led by Acting Administrator Drew Feely — issued a Compliance Review running more than 300 pages with nine findings. It concluded the Authority was in default of its federal grant terms and that there was “no viable path” to completing the 171-mile Merced–Bakersfield Early Operating Segment by December 31, 2033. FRA classified that as a “Project Material Change” and gave the Authority 37 days to respond.
.@USDOT has found that the California high speed rail project is in default of its federal grant awards totaling $4 billion. Here's the cold, hard truth - there's no viable path to complete the rail project on time or on budget. California is on notice — If they can't deliver…
On July 16, 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy (R) terminated two agreements: $928,600,000 from the FY10 High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail grant awarded in 2010 and 2011, and $3.07 billion from the 2024 Federal-State Partnership grant — roughly $4 billion combined. “Federal dollars are not a blank check,” Duffy said. “They come with a promise to deliver results.” On August 26, 2025, USDOT terminated another $175,000,000 across four projects: the Le Grand Overcrossing at $89,600,000, the Madera high-speed rail station at $54,500,000, downtown San Francisco extension final design at $24,700,000, and Southern San Jose grade separations at $7,500,000. Total forfeited: about $4.18 billion.
Money already out the door is not coming back. The Senate Commerce Committee reported in February 2026 that Washington has awarded the project $6.8 billion over more than 25 years, of which $3.5 billion has been spent and was not clawed back. Congressional scrutiny has continued from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) at Commerce, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) at House Oversight, and Rep. Vince Fong (R-CA). In March 2025, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) asked the FBI to investigate the project. There is no public evidence an investigation was opened, and no one connected to the project has been charged with any crime. What the record establishes is missed deadlines and a federal finding of grant default — which is a contract failure, not a criminal one.
Governor Newsom and California's high speed rail boondoggle are the definition of government incompetence and possibly corruption. The price tag has gone from $33B to $135B with no completion date in sight.
The $135 billion in that post is Duffy’s own figure, and no corruption case has been brought by anyone. The Authority’s own number is enough on its own: the 2026 Business Plan puts San Francisco–Los Angeles at $126.2 billion, roughly 3.8 times the $33 billion voters were quoted in 2008. Board member Anthony Williams told CBS’s 60 Minutes in April 2026, “Today, we estimate with the right optimization just over $125 billion,” and separately, “I think $126 billion is the current estimate for that.” A larger $231.3 billion figure appears in the draft plan for the full 494-mile Phase 1 to Anaheim, calculated on a different basis; it is not the San Francisco–Los Angeles estimate.
To the Law abiding, Tax paying, Hardworking Citizens of the United States of America, I am thrilled to announce that I have officially freed you from funding California's disastrously overpriced, 'HIGH SPEED TRAIN TO NOWHERE.'
The funding gap is not a rounding error. Board member Jason Elliott put it at “$86.8 billion dollars short of where we need to go.” California’s cap-and-trade program supplies about $1 billion a year through 2045 — the single most reliable revenue the project has, and roughly one one-hundredth of the shortfall per year. Federal funding is now under 10 percent of the program budget.
California's high-speed rail has all the marks of a boondoggle: - $16 billion spent - 17 years gone - No high-speed track laid We have put California on notice: If you can't deliver, American taxpayers will not fund your train to nowhere.
California’s answer has been consistent: the review was pretext, and the project is scrutinized more heavily than anything comparable in the country. Newsom sued the day after the termination. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) made the case in writing.
“The fact is that the California High-Speed Rail Project is already the most audited public works project in the country.”
“Secretary Duffy has used a review process to appease President Trump and punish Californians who didn’t vote for him.”
— Sens. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), joint statement
That argument does real work on the politics of the termination. It does less against the documents. The December 31, 2024 trainset deadline was written into a grant agreement signed under the Biden administration, not imposed by Duffy. The December 1, 2025 date was California’s own representation to a federal judge. And it was California — not Washington — that walked away from the lawsuit two days before Christmas, without explanation.
The sharpest assessment of the project’s trajectory, as it happens, came from Newsom himself — twelve years ago, when he was lieutenant governor and the price tag was a fraction of today’s.
“The facts seem overwhelming that this project is not going to materialize in our lifetime.”
Then-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), 2014 · resurfaced video
The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will.
California told voters $33 billion and 2020. Eighteen years and roughly $15 billion later there is no high-speed track, no train, and a $126.2 billion estimate. The state missed the federal trainset deadline, then missed the date it swore to a judge, then missed the deadline to explain itself to its own Legislature — and then dropped the lawsuit it filed to get the money back. The $4 billion is gone. The deadlines were California’s to meet.
