{"id":135480,"date":"2026-02-16T21:07:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/135480\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T21:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T21:07:09","slug":"trump-vows-feds-wont-pay-for-gateway-tunnel-overruns-denies-wanting-to-rename-penn-station-after-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/135480\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump vows feds won’t pay for Gateway tunnel overruns, denies wanting to rename Penn Station after himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump<\/a> said Monday that he would not permit the federal government to cover any cost overruns from the ambitious Gateway tunnel project<\/a> to expand and renovate the Northeast Corridor rail line between Newark and New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am opposed to the future boondoggle known as \u2018Gateway,\u2019 in New York\/New Jersey, because it will cost many BILLIONS OF DOLLARS more than projected or anticipated, much like Gavin Newscum\u2019s \u2018Railroad\u2019 to nowhere, which is many times over budget<\/a>, with no end in sight,\u201d Trump chided on Truth Social<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGateway will likewise be financially catastrophic for the region, unless hard work and proper planning is done, NOW, to avoid insurmountable future cost overruns,\u201d he continued. \u201cUnder no circumstances, will the Federal Government be responsible for ANY COST OVERRUNS \u2013 NOT ONE DOLLAR!<\/p>\n

President Trump moved to freeze federal funding for the Gateway tunnel project back in October. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Government is willing to meet, however, to make sure that this does not happen!\u201d<\/p>\n

During the government shutdown fight this past fall, Trump ordered the freezing of federal funds for the project in apparent retaliation for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) pushing for the suspension of operations.<\/p>\n

Construction was initially able to continue thanks to a line of credit that ran out Feb. 6. That same day, a Manhattan federal judge ordered $16 billion<\/a> to be restored to the project.<\/p>\n

Work on the Gateway project has spanned five sites across New York and New Jersey. The existing tunnels are more than a century old and were badly impacted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.<\/p>\n

The Gateway tunnel project is intended to renovate and expand the aging tunnel connection between New York City and New Jersey. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) speaking at the Gateway Tunnel construction site in Weehawken, NJ on Feb. 6, 2026. Local pols have long touted the federal funding they locked down for the ambitious project. Kyle Mazza\/CNP\/INSTARimages<\/p>\n

The connection between New York City and New Jersey is the busiest rail passageway in the country, and the Obama administration deemed Gateway one of the most important<\/a> infrastructure projects in America.<\/p>\n

Privately, Trump and Schumer broached the topic of renaming New York\u2019s Penn Station and Washington\u2019s Dulles International Airport after the president<\/a> during a discussion about unlocking funds for the tunnel last month, a source with knowledge of the discussion told The Post.<\/p>\n

President Trump claimed that he didn\u2019t bring up the idea of renaming Penn Station after himself. Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

\u201cThe naming of PENN Station (I LOVE Pennsylvania, but it is a direct competitor to New York, and \u2018eating New York\u2019s lunch!\u2019) to TRUMP STATION, was brought up by certain politicians and construction union heads, not me,\u201d Trump added on Truth Social Monday.<\/p>\n

During his second term, Trump \u2014 who emblazoned his name on scores of properties during his real estate days \u2014 has had a series of marquee federal buildings renamed after him, including the Kennedy Center and the Institute of Peace.<\/p>\n

The president has also intervened in other key infrastructure projects, vetoing a bipartisan bill last year to finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act<\/a>, which would bring clean drinking water to rural communities in the\u00a0Eastern Plains of Colorado<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Just last week, Trump threatened to prevent the new Gordie Howe International Bridge<\/a> between Detroit and Windsor, Ont. from opening\u00a0amid trade friction with Canada. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump said Monday that he would not permit the federal government to cover any cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153,12480,5865,1066,9,24,11,10,7968,87,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-135480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-gateway-project","10":"tag-infrastructure","11":"tag-new-jersey","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-penn-station","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}