by Californians now have a new opportunity to preserve our high-speed rail project thanks to Donald Trump.
Shall we accept it?
Trump, as usual, gave us this chance in a shady and unlawful manner. He claimed to have killed a train to nowhere and forced the Federal Railroad Administration to return $4 billion in funds that had been used for construction.
Yes, I am aware that cutting billions from a project that is notoriously underfunded isn’t likely to improve high-speed rail. However, neither our time nor our nation are normal. Many of us in this divisive age are inspired to take action simply because our adversaries oppose it.
Trump is essentially proposing a neo-fascist interpretation of the biblical mark of Cain, a punishment that also bestows a kind of omnipotence, when he says he is killing something. Because Cain killed his brother Abel, God banishes him in the fourth chapter of Genesis, but he also gives him a mark of protection, meaning that no one will kill him if they come across him while he is out and about.
Trump’s attacks appear to provide a similar protective mark, if not a revitalizing boost. Medicaid’s popularity skyrocketed after the president drastically reduced the program’s funding through his Big Beautiful Bill. More Americans wanted to relocate to Europe after Trump attacked its progressive trade and social policies.
Additionally, the public’s support for immigrants has drastically changed as a result of Trump’s unlawful immigration raids, which take both U.S. citizens and undocumented individuals off the streets. This year, the number of Americans who believe that immigration should decline fell by 25 points, and a record-high 79% of Americans now believe that immigration is beneficial to the nation.
Trump’s legacy is now beginning to take effect on high-speed rail. The leaders of the state are coming together to support the initiative after almost 20 years of apathy.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a complaint a day after Trump’s claw-back, claiming that the president’s decision was unlawful and founded on inaccurate information, and he demanded that all $4 billion be returned. Having previously voiced doubts about the massive project, Governor Gavin Newsom now supports it, claiming it is an essential component of his plans. With unprecedented vigor, legislative Democrats have closed ranks around high-speed rail. And after years of political hesitancy, the High-Speed Rail Authority has gone to war, with its CEO, Ian Choudri, denouncing the Trump administration.
Simply expressed, such displays of support are unheard of. The Democratic elite in California has been the true opponent of high-speed rail, despite the fact that Republicans have been the most vocal in their criticism.
This is due to the fact that high-speed rail was not a Democratic priority or idea. During his first tenure in the 1970s, forward-thinking Governor Jerry Brown promoted rail but failed. Instead, the project was approved by California voters in 2008 through a ballot initiative campaign spearheaded by Quentin Kopp, an independent state politician who is not well-liked among Democrats.
Since then, California Democrats have frequently subtly expressed public support for the project while working to sabotage it behind closed doors. Democratic lawmakers dislike construction, particularly when it comes to costly infrastructure. They would rather allocate public funds to social initiatives that directly benefit Californians who might vote for them, as well as to labor organizations that finance their campaigns.
Legislative leaders have recently attempted to redirect high-speed rail monies toward regional and municipal projects, particularly in Southern California, which was excluded from the initial phase of high-speed rail development. The proposal was then criticized by Newsom in his 2019 top of the state speech, which also reduced the program’s initial construction footprint to a 171-mile section of the Central Valley that connected Bakersfield and Merced.
Following the speech, which gave the impression that Newsom was giving up on high-speed rail, the first Trump administration withheld hundreds of millions of dollars for the project. The idea appeared to be dead based on subsequent headlines and even columnists.
Despite this, high-speed rail has advanced significantly in the last ten years.
More than fifty new structures, such as bridges and viaducts, have been built for the rail projects during the first phase of construction in the Central Valley. Environmental evaluations of the 463-mile journey from Los Angeles to San Jose were finished by officials. In order to extend high-speed rail service in the Bay Area, Caltrain had to electrify its corridor. Additionally, workers started installing railroad tracks earlier this year, with the railhead groundbreaking at Bakersfield.
Trump’s recent criticism of the project simply serves to emphasize its advancement. California may react with pictures of everything that has been and is being built while the president lies about money being squandered on nothing. Additionally, the state has a strong probability of regaining the $4 billion in court. Legally binding agreements already require the funds, and as recently as February, the project cleared federal evaluations. Furthermore, despite the negative publicity surrounding the project, popular support for high-speed rail has long been greater.
Trump’s attack is a huge political gift. The project’s supporters, who have long been a target for populist attacks, now have their own target: the autocratic president who is attempting to halt the construction of America’s only public high-speed train, which Californians approved at the polls.
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Trump is already being pushed on the defense by state authorities. They claim that Trump is giving China, which has constructed the most extensive high-speed rail network in the world, a gift. They point out that by abandoning a building project that created more than 15,000 employment in more conservative interior counties, he is harming his own Central Valley supporters. They remind Californians that he is using lies and personal resentment toward a state that did not support him as justifications for cutting billions from high-speed rail.
Following the cancellation, Newsom declared that Trump’s decision to revoke federal funding for California high-speed rail was blatantly political. This is just one more political ploy to penalize California.
However, Trump’s punishment also creates fresh opportunities. Private investors may be ready to step in now that the corrupt and inept federal government is no longer working on the project. In an effort to establish private-public partnerships, the state has been debating a $1 billion yearly investment in high-speed rail in recent weeks.
According to polls conducted this spring, the majority of Californians support high-speed rail, with voter approval reaching 67%, which is twice Trump’s approval rating in the state. If you put an elderly autocrat against fast modern trains, California will triumph.
Joe Mathews contributes to Zcalo Public Square, a publication of ASU Media Enterprise, with his Connecting California piece.
