President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for delays on New York's Gateway Program, as the White House continues to keep federal funding on hold for the massive New York-New Jersey infrastructure effort.
"Remember everybody, it is Chuck Schumer, the under-siege Senator from New York, who is holding up the Gateway Project!" Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He did not elaborate on his statement.
Earlier this month, Trump and Schumer held a rare in-person meeting at the White House to discuss the Gateway Program, a plan that would expand rail capacity into New York by building new passenger train tunnels beneath the Hudson River and easing pressure on the aging North River Tunnels damaged during Superstorm Sandy.
Schumer's office said that the senator "emphasized the urgent need to promptly release the already-secured funds for the Gateway Program — the most important infrastructure project in the nation employing thousands of workers and vital to New York and the entire Northeast economy."
Last October, during the government shutdown, the Trump administration put on hold roughly $18 billion in federal funding for two major New York infrastructure projects, including the $16 billion Gateway Tunnel Project.
At the time, Trump said that his administration would use the shutdown to cut back on federally funded projects supported by Democrats, including the Gateway Program.
"It's billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get," Trump said. "Tell him it's terminated."
The Gateway Program is led by the Gateway Development Commission in partnership with Amtrak, NJ Transit and the federal government.
It is designed to protect and expand rail capacity into Penn Station, which serves about 600,000 passengers a day.
Local officials have vowed to fight to restore funding, and talks between Trump and lawmakers have included Gateway's future as part of broader negotiations over infrastructure and federal spending.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought later wrote on X that Gateway was among the projects targeted over what he called “unconstitutional diversity, equity, and inclusion principles.”
In a statement to WABC-TV, the Transportation Department said it had been reviewing whether any "unconstitutional practices" were occurring in the two projects, but said the shutdown forced the furlough of staffers conducting the review.
"This is another unfortunate casualty of radical Democrats' reckless decision to hold the federal government hostage to give illegal immigrants benefits," the statement said.
Schumer has criticized Trump's announcement as "vindictive, reckless, and foolish."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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