California sues Trump over axed high-speed rail grant

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - California sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday over his decision to cancel a $929 million federal grant for the state's long-delayed bullet train project.

The project, which aims to run nearly the entire length of the state, has been dogged by cost overruns and missed deadlines.

Trump's Department of Transportation announced last Thursday it would be cancelling the grant because California "failed to make reasonable progress" towards the line's construction.

But the lawsuit filed Tuesday by California's High-Speed Rail Authority seeks to not only challenge that decision but also demands a temporary stay in its implementation, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Trump has long feuded with California's leaders over the transit project, saying in February that California should "send the Federal Government back the Billions of Dollars WASTED!" following Gov. Gavin Newsom's announcement that the state would shift the focus of the line to the state's interior.

Newsom later clarified that he wanted to take a step-by-step approach to the project, which seeks to connect the state's largest city and commercial hub of Los Angeles in the south to the tech-heavy city of San Francisco in the north.

He maintains he is committed to seeing the full length completed and has suggested Trump's efforts to curtail funding are based on the state's pushback on his policies rather than substantive issues with the rail line's construction.