How High-Speed Rail Got Caught Between Newsom and Trump

If you weren’t already confused about the status of California’s controversial bullet train after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State address, you might be soon.

During his speech last week, the governor said the high-speed rail network as it was initially envisioned — as a link between Los Angeles and the Bay Area — was taking too long and costing too much. So, he announced, the project would be scaled back for the time being, instead stretching from Bakersfield to Merced.

Eventually, Newsom backtracked and blamed the media for overstating the change of plan.

But not before President Donald Trump seized the opportunity to hammer a favorite target, tweeting that “California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project,” and saying that the federal government wanted back $3.5 billion.

That was a week ago, before a new battle between the president and the Golden State took shape. This time, it was over Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on the border in order to access more money for a border wall. California and 15 other states sued, arguing that the move was an illegal way of diverting funds that Congress designated for other things.

“Our message to the White House is clear: California will not be part of this political theater,” Newsom said in a statement in support of the legal action.

Tuesday, though, the tension escalated when the Transportation Department said it was exploring legal options to force California to pay back $2.5 billion in federal money that has already been spent on the project. The Trump administration said in a separate letter that it planned to end a $929 million grant to the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

Both Newsom and Trump linked the fight over the border wall with the renewed efforts to claw back rail funding.

“This is clear political retribution by President Trump, and we won’t sit idly by,” Newsom said in a statement. “This is California’s money, and we are going to fight for it.”

Trump tweeted that what he described as California’s “failed Fast Train” system “is hundreds of times more expensive than the desperately needed Wall!”

Still, it’s not clear whether the federal government has the authority to keep the $929 million grant from California. Which means that the fight over the bullet train — like so many of the clashes between the Trump administration and California — is likely to end up in court.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.