President Donald Trump said Tuesday that California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) could never be elected president because of his failures on the costly, unfinished high-speed rail project and wildfires in his state.
Trump was responding to questions from reporters as he hosted visiting (and recently elected) Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
President Donald Trump meets Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, May 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
He talked about Newsom in the context of investments in public infrastructure:
In California — a little train going from San Francisco to Los Angeles. That’s being run by Gavin Newscum [sic], the governor of California. Did you ever hear of Gavin Newscum? That train is the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen. It’s like, totally out of control. So then they said, all right, we won’t go into San Francisco, we’ll stop 25 miles short. And we won’t go into Los Angeles, we’ll stop 25 miles short. It’s hundreds of billions of dollars for this stupid project that should’ve never been built. And then they realize that it would’ve been a lot less costly if we just gave limousine service back-and-forth, and gave it free, they would’ve saved hundreds of billions of dollars. They have airplanes to go there for one one-hundredth the cost. And they have cars — they have a thing called the highway that goes back-and-forth, that’s not fully utilized. And they got involved with this project, and Gavin — you know, I always liked Gavin. I had a good relationship with him. I just got him a lot of water — you know, I sent in people to open up that water, because he refused to do it, and we just got him a lot of water they would’ve had that water — if they would’ve done what I said to do, they wouldn’t have the fires in Los Angeles, those fires would’ve been put out very quickly. But if you think about it, and you gotta take a look at this project — it’s the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen. I’ve watched a lot of stupid people build a lot of stupid things, but that’s the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen, what’s happening between San Francisco and Los Angeles. and you want to ask about that because this government does not gonna pay I told our very great new Secretary of Transportation. She’s doing a good job Sean Duffy. I said we’re not gonna pay for that thing, they are. Just it’s out of control. This is something that you don’t have things like this, it’s not even conceivable — like, 30 times over a budget, 30 times — it’s the craziest thing. And now it’s hundreds of — it was supposed to be a simple train. And I think the media should take a look at it, and I’d love him to run for president on the other side, you know? I’d love to see that, but I don’t think he’s gonna be running because that one project alone — well that, and the fires, and a lot of other things pretty much put him out of the race.
Newsom’s has sued the Trump administration 15 times in the first 100 days of the second Trump presidency.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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