California's High-Speed Rail: A Billion-Dollar Boondoggle

Yesterday, President Trump called it “The Worst Cost Overrun I’ve ever seen.”

Construction photo of California High Speed Rail infrastructure.

Californians were sold a vision in 2008: a high-speed train between Los Angeles and San Francisco for a mere $33 billion, done by 2020. It was a bad idea, but the sales pitch was slick—snappy trains, less traffic, and a cleaner planet. Voters said yes. Jump forward to 2025, and that vision is a financial nightmare, a classic example of government overreach and wastefulness that conservatives have been yelling about for years. Not a single foot of track has been installed, and the price tag has swollen to an estimated $88 billion to $128 billion. That is not a project; that is a taxpayer-money sinkhole.

Early on, the California High-Speed Rail Authority squandered money on anything but actual rail. Billions were “invested” in peripheral projects at the route's ends—station upgrades and electrification of Caltrain in the Bay Area or amorphous "connectivity" upgrades in Southern California. These were flashy distractions, not necessary infrastructure. Of the $13.7 billion spent to date, $1.6 billion went to consultants and advertising, and only $1.4 billion for 22 miles of elevated dirt between a field and an orchard. No tracks, no trains – just a lot of money gone with no regrets.

Undeterred by California's looming budget shortfalls, Governor Gavin Newsom continues doubling down. Last January 2025, he marked the "track-laying phase" in Kern County, a ceremonial activity for a project still years from being operational. Newsom's budget for 2025 puts this plan ahead of pressing priorities like wildfire defense or water infrastructure, depending on revenues from the state's cap-and-trade program, which is also being attacked. With no $6.5 billion funding source available to cover just the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment, his optimism is make-believe or designed to misdirect from financial reality.

President Donald Trump, never one to mince words, eviscerated the project yesterday, 2025, calling it “the worst cost overrun I’ve ever seen.” He vowed the federal government would not foot the bill, signaling a potential end to the $4 billion in Biden-era grants now under review. Trump’s stance echoes conservative principles: accountability and prioritizing taxpayer dollars. This government is not going to pay, he declared, pointing to a project he views as a symbol of liberal excess.

It's time to pull the plug, reallocate the money to real infrastructure, and let Californians' voters decide whether they want to keep pumping money into Newsom's pipe dream. As Trump rightly noted, this isn't just mismanagement—it's an abuse of public trust.