Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, on Friday denied President Donald Trump‘s claim he proposed renaming New York City’s Penn Station after the president, calling the assertion an “absolute lie.”
The senator’s statement emerged as a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore $16 billion in funding for the Gateway tunnel project under the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey.
Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email on Saturday for comment.
Why It Matters
The Gateway tunnel project is critical infrastructure for the Northeast corridor, designed to ease strain on an existing 110-year-old tunnel used by Amtrak and commuter trains between New York and New Jersey.
Delays in the tunnel can create backups throughout the East Coast rail system. The funding freeze threatened approximately 1,000 immediate job losses and thousands of additional future jobs, according to the Gateway Development Commission.
The suspension of federal support was widely viewed as leverage against Schumer, whom the White House blamed for a government shutdown last year that was resolved weeks later.
What To Know
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to restore funding to the Gateway tunnel project, ruling just as construction was set to shut down on the massive infrastructure project. U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas in Manhattan approved a request by New York and New Jersey for a temporary restraining order (TRO) barring the administration from withholding the funds while the states seek a preliminary injunction.
The decision came months after the administration announced it was halting the money in support for the project, citing the then-government shutdown and what a top federal budget official said were concerns about unconstitutional spending around diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night, Trump said Schumer “suggested that to me about changing the name of Penn Station to Trump Station,” according to a pool report and reporting by NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer. Trump added Virginia’s Washington Dulles International Airport is “really separate” and “not too involved with Congress.”
Schumer quickly responded on X, writing: “Absolute lie. He knows it. Everyone knows it. Only one man can restart the project and he can restart it with the snap of his fingers.”
According to sources who spoke to Punchbowl News and CNN, Trump proposed last month to rename Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport after himself in exchange for the billions of dollars in funding needed for the project. Schumer rejected the proposal and told Trump it was beyond his authority to initiate such a request.
New York and New Jersey sued over the funding pause this week as did the Gateway Development Commission. At a hearing in Manhattan, Shankar Duraiswamy of the New Jersey attorney general’s office told the judge the states need “urgent relief” because of the harm and costs that will occur if the project is stopped.
“There is literally a massive hole in the earth in North Bergen,” he said, referring to the New Jersey city and claiming abandoning the sites, even temporarily, “would pose a substantial safety and public health threat.”
In her ruling, Vargas wrote that “the Court is also persuaded that Plaintiffs would suffer irreparable harm in the absence of an injunction,” adding that “the public interest would be harmed by a delay in a critical infrastructure project.”
The idea of renaming Dulles after Trump initially emerged three days after he was sworn back into office last year, when Representative Addison McDowell, a North Carolina Republican, introduced a bill to rename the airport after the president.
What People Are Saying
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, wrote on X: “Last night’s court ruling confirms what we already knew: President Trump must put the American people over his ego and stop playing games with New Yorkers’ tax dollars and livelihoods. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are counting on the Gateway Hudson Tunnel – including the project’s talented union workers and their families, as well as the commuter train riders and rail passengers traveling along the busiest corridor in the nation.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement on Friday: “I am grateful the court acted quickly to block this senseless funding freeze, which threatened to derail a project our entire region depends on. The Hudson Tunnel Project is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the nation.”
Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who worked under former President Joe Biden, wrote on X: “A federal court has blocked Trump’s shutdown of America’s biggest critical infrastructure project – which makes sense, since he’s violating legal commitments the federal government made in good faith on my watch. But we will have to keep defending this vital project, and the thousands of workers who will deliver it, from the President’s nakedly political games.”
Representative Suhas Subramanyam, a Virginia Democrat who partially represents Dulles, said: “Instead of lowering costs, President Trump is holding critical infrastructure funding hostage for more vanity projects,” vowing to “fight any effort to even remotely consider renaming Dulles Airport.”
Representative Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, wrote on X: “[Trump] is once again attempting to extend his extortion racket by smearing his name onto Penn Station while holding up billions in critical funding for the Gateway Project.”
Representative Riley Moore, a West Virginia Republican who previously co-sponsored a bill to rename Dulles after Trump, praised the reported proposal in a text to Axios: “…let’s put his name on it. One [of] the greatest Presidents in US history.”
Representative Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat whose district is affected by the project, told Axios: “Trump is pathologically petty and cannot be trusted to keep his word. There is no point in yielding to his ever-changing ransom demands.”
What Happens Next
The Gateway Development Commission said in a statement that once funds are released, they “will work quickly to restart site operations and get our workers back on the job.”
The TRO remains in effect while New York and New Jersey pursue a preliminary injunction to keep federal funds flowing as their lawsuit proceeds.
Reporting from the Associated Press contributed to this article.
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