{"id":5697,"date":"2025-10-16T23:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/5697\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T23:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:40:06","slug":"trump-vows-to-ditch-hudson-river-tunnel-project-leave-holes-in-ground-across-nyc-and-nj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/5697\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump vows to ditch Hudson River tunnel project, leave holes in ground across NYC and NJ"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump declared on Wednesday evening that he would \u201cterminate\u201d federal funding for the Gateway Project, which aims to build the first new set of Hudson River train tunnels in over a century.<\/p>\n

If he gets his way, he\u2019ll leave a new mark on the region in the form of a pair of unfinished holes on either side of the river<\/a> \u2014 one in North Bergen, another on Manhattan\u2019s West Side \u2014 along with three other active construction sites that would be abandoned.<\/p>\n

Federal transportation officials under former President Joe Biden committed to paying for $6.8 billion<\/a> of the project\u2019s $16 billion cost \u2014 which includes repairs to the existing 115-year-old Hudson River tunnels. It\u2019s the single largest federal grant for a mass transit project in American history.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project in Manhattan, the project in New York, it\u2019s billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get, it\u2019s terminated. Tell him it\u2019s terminated,\u201d Trump said during a news conference in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

Representatives for the Gateway Project declined to respond to Trump\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, said Trump’s move was out of “pure spite and with sheer stupidity.”<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Trump’s escalation comes after his budget director Russ Vought said earlier this month<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cpresumptions of social and economic disadvantage\u201d for contractors.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is moving forward. It is under construction,\u201d said Carlo Scissura, president of the New York Building Congress, a group that lobbies for the state\u2019s construction industry. \u201cContracts 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scissura argued the order would actually take jobs away from the president\u2019s supporters. \u201cThe building trades members like Donald Trump,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey likened Trump\u2019s tactics to a Garden State-style shakedown.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump is using mob boss tactics that are just hurting the people of America,\u201d Kim said Thursday morning on “The Brian Lehrer Show.” \u201c\u200aIt benefits Republicans, Democrats, independents across the political spectrum. I just think that that is absolutely reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tunnels would primarily be used by NJ Transit trains moving in and out of Penn Station. The president\u2019s comments also come in the final weeks of New Jersey’s competitive governor\u2019s race between Jack Ciattarelli, a Trump-backed Republican, and U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat.<\/p>\n

In a rare move for a Republican candidate, Ciattarelli publicly disagreed with Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Jersey needs a governor who has the standing to work with, and when necessary disagree with, the president and advocate for New Jersey\u2019s fair share of federal tax dollars \u2014 including the Gateway Tunnel,\u201d Ciattarelli wrote on X. \u201cThis is a critical infrastructure project and I will fight to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherrill threatened to sue over the cut, saying on X she\u2019ll be \u201ctaking anyone and everyone to court to unstick this money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramsey Khalifeh contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump declared on Wednesday evening that he would \u201cterminate\u201d federal funding for the Gateway Project, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-5697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5697","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=5697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}