California gov jabs Trump’s call to return federal funding for high-speed rail project

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) fired back at President Trump on Wednesday night after Trump urged the state to return federal funding for its high speed rail project.

“This is CA’s money, allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back. The train is leaving the station — better get on board!” Newsom tweeted.

Fake news. We’re building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond.

This is CA’s money, allocated by Congress for this project. We’re not giving it back.

The train is leaving the station — better get on board!

(Also, desperately searching for some wall $$??) https://t.co/9hxEfEX8Vm

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 14, 2019

Trump earlier Wednesday tweeted that California had “been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars.”

“They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars. We want that money back now. Whole project is a ‘green’ disaster!” he added.

Newsom called Trump’s tweet “fake news,” saying that California is “building high-speed rail, connecting the Central Valley and beyond.”

Newsom also jabbed Trump by suggesting his request for California to return the allocated funding was an attempt to search for funds for his proposed U.S.–Mexico border wall.

“(Also, desperately searching for some wall $$??)” he tweeted.

Lawmakers are negotiating a bipartisan border deal that would prevent another possible government shutdown and resolve a long-standing impasse over Trump’s border wall.

The back-and-forth comes after Newsom, during his State of the State address on Tuesday, asked legislators to scale back plans for a high-speed rail project that would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles. 

The infrastructure plan was a project of Newsom’s predecessor, fellow Democrat Jerry Brown.