President Donald Trump declared on Wednesday evening that he would “terminate” federal funding for the Gateway Project, which aims to build the first new set of Hudson River train tunnels in over a century.
If he gets his way, he’ll leave a new mark on the region in the form of a pair of unfinished holes on either side of the river — one in North Bergen, another on Manhattan’s West Side — along with three other active construction sites that would be abandoned.
Federal transportation officials under former President Joe Biden committed to paying for $6.8 billion of the project’s $16 billion cost — which includes repairs to the existing 115-year-old Hudson River tunnels. It’s the single largest federal grant for a mass transit project in American history.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, the leading Senate Democrat, has lobbied for the Gateway money since the Obama administration. But now Trump appears to be using it as a bargaining chip in the ongoing federal government shutdown.
“The project in Manhattan, the project in New York, it’s billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get, it’s terminated. Tell him it’s terminated,” Trump said during a news conference in the Oval Office.
Representatives for the Gateway Project declined to respond to Trump’s comments.
Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, said Trump’s move was out of “pure spite and with sheer stupidity.”
“It’s petty revenge politics, and who gets hurt? It’s going to screw over hundreds of thousands of New York and New Jersey commuters,” Schumer said.
Trump’s escalation comes after his budget director Russ Vought said earlier this month that he would move to withhold $18 billion in transit construction grants for New York because the state requires some of its public construction contracts go to women- and minority-owned businesses. That declaration came the first day of the government shutdown.
The same day, the U.S. Department of Transportation proposed a new rule change that would require states to review their policies to ensure that race and sex are not “presumptions of social and economic disadvantage” for contractors.
It’s unclear whether that rule change would actually slow the flow of funds for the Gateway tunnels. On Wednesday, Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams said work was still continuing. Gateway officials also said work would move on after Vought announced the planned funding cut earlier this month.
“It is moving forward. It is under construction,” said Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress, a group that lobbies for the state’s construction industry. “Contracts have been awarded. Funding agreements have been signed by [the U.S. Department of Transportation]. It would take a lot to unravel what is the nation’s largest infrastructure project that will employ thousands of men and women in the building trades.”
Scissura argued the order would actually take jobs away from the president’s supporters. “The building trades members like Donald Trump,” he added.
U.S. Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey likened Trump’s tactics to a Garden State-style shakedown.
“Donald Trump is using mob boss tactics that are just hurting the people of America,” Kim said Thursday morning on “The Brian Lehrer Show.” “ It benefits Republicans, Democrats, independents across the political spectrum. I just think that that is absolutely reckless.”
The tunnels would primarily be used by NJ Transit trains moving in and out of Penn Station. The president’s comments also come in the final weeks of New Jersey’s competitive governor’s race between Jack Ciattarelli, a Trump-backed Republican, and U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat.
In a rare move for a Republican candidate, Ciattarelli publicly disagreed with Trump.
“New Jersey needs a governor who has the standing to work with, and when necessary disagree with, the president and advocate for New Jersey’s fair share of federal tax dollars — including the Gateway Tunnel,” Ciattarelli wrote on X. “This is a critical infrastructure project and I will fight to get it done.”
Sherrill threatened to sue over the cut, saying on X she’ll be “taking anyone and everyone to court to unstick this money.”
Ramsey Khalifeh contributed reporting.