America has a long and complicated relationship with ambitious infrastructure projects.
From the Hoover Dam to the Interstate Highway System, some ventures have transformed our nation. Others mysteriously transform taxpayer dollars into thin air.
This from thepatriotjournal.com.
California, ever eager to position itself as America’s progressive pioneer, promised voters a gleaming vision of modern rail transportation.
Instead, they delivered what looks more like a slow-motion train robbery of the public treasury.
President Trump did not merely criticize the troubled project Tuesday—he declared war on waste. With characteristic directness, he announced:
The train that’s being built between Los Angeles and San Francisco is the worst managed project I think I’ve ever seen.
Drawing from decades of construction experience, Trump delivered a devastating assessment.
He criticized the project for being hundreds of billions of dollars over budget.
Tuesday, from The Post Millennial:
We’re going to start an investigation of that because it’s not possible. I built for a living and I built on time, on budget. It’s impossible that something could cost that much.
The numbers tell a story of spectacular mismanagement. Initially projected at $33 billion in 2008, costs have now ballooned beyond $128 billion. That is enough to build three brand-new Interstate Highway Systems.
Someone from the California High-Speed Rail Authority, apparently operating in an alternate reality, recently tweeted:
Ignore the noise. We’re busy building.
They are certainly building something—probably the world’s most expensive monument to government inefficiency.
The project’s timeline now stretches between 2030 and 2033—and that is just for the Merced to Bakersfield section.
For those unfamiliar with California geography, that is like building a high-speed rail line between two Dairy Queens and calling it progress.
Representative Kevin Kiley (R-CA) is not buying the state’s optimism. His January 2025 bill to cut federal funding pulls no punches:
It’s unconscionable that we continue to throw billions of dollars at this failure of a project which is never going to actually be built.
While California officials celebrate completing 171 miles of track after 15 years—roughly the distance a horse could travel in three days—other countries have built entire national networks. Japan completed its first bullet train line in just five years.
Trump’s call for an investigation represents more than oversight—it is a battle cry for fiscal sanity.
As states contemplate their own infrastructure projects, California’s rail system serves as a perfect example of what not to do with taxpayer money.
For Americans watching their dollars disappear into an endless construction project, Trump’s intervention offers hope for accountability.
The question is not whether this train will ever reach its destination—it is whether we can stop this runaway spending before it derails the entire state’s budget.
Final thought: Trump to the rescue—at the speed of Trump.
