On July 17th， according to reports， on July 16th local time， U.S. President Trump announced on his social media platform “Truth Social”:
The federal government will no longer provide any funding for the California high-speed rail project， calling it a “disastrous， massively over-budget ‘high-speed rail to nowhere’.”
He also criticized California’s Democratic Governor Newsom for his incompetent leadership， stating that the project has consumed hundreds of billions of dollars but has “never delivered on its promises and will never be delivered.”
It is understood that as early as the beginning of June this year， the U.S. Department of Transportation released a report stating that the California high-speed rail project， which is being slowly constructed， is plagued by various problems such as schedule delays and mismanagement.
From the passage of the bill in 2008 to the present， $16 billion has been spent over 17 years， yet not a single track has been laid. The report also required the California High-Speed Rail Authority to respond by July 11th; otherwise， approximately $4 billion in additional funding would be canceled.
As of mid-2025， the U.S. high-speed rail project has only completed the construction of some bridges， roadbeds， and viaducts. Track laying and signal system construction have not yet commenced.
Furthermore， the project’s extended timeline is astonishing. The project was initiated in 2008 with the plan to complete America’s first high-speed rail line between San Francisco and Los Angeles (approximately 1287 kilometers) by 2020. This line was intended to operate trains at a speed of 220 miles per hour (approximately 354 kilometers per hour) with a total budget of $33 billion.
However， 17 years have passed， and it is now 2025. Not only has the construction period been delayed， but the budget has also skyrocketed， increasing from the initial $33 billion to $128 billion， nearly a fourfold increase. The completion date has now been pushed back to 2033 or even later.
If the federal government withdraws the $4 billion in funding， although the California government has pledged to continue construction with at least $1 billion in state funds annually， a funding gap of over $6.5 billion will remain. This further exacerbates the risk of the high-speed rail project becoming abandoned.
