A federal judge put the hammer down on President Donald Trump’s scheme to block funding to the Hudson Tunnel project, which began in 2023.
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The ruling, reported by the New York Times, called out Trump’s demand that New York’s Penn Station be named after him in exchange for the funds.
Judge Jeannette Vargas of the Southern District of New York ruled on Monday that Trump violated federal guidelines when he blocked the pledged $16 billion funding in September. The project was forced to shut down construction, and about 1,000 workers were laid off in February thanks to Trump.
Trump claimed he wanted to “review” the hiring practices of the workers, but the judge didn’t buy it. In interviews, Trump confessed the real reason was to target Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“We’re cutting a $20 billion project that Schumer fought for 15 years to get, and I’m cutting the project,” Trump said last October, as quoted by the judge. “The project is gonna be dead. It’s just pretty much dead right now.”
As CNN reported in February, Trump in told Schumer in January that he would unfreeze funding for the Hudson Tunnel project “on one condition: In exchange for the money, Schumer had to agree to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after Trump.”
In her suit, New York Attorney General Letitia James called the move “unlawful” and a “politically motivated decision.” She cited Trump’s public comments and alleged that he’d been “explicit that the suspension of funding is a brazen act of political retribution.”
About five months after the federal government stop making payments, the project ran out of money. It was set to “supplement two 116-year-old single-track tunnels under the Hudson [River]…” the report said.
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A February release from James explained that the tunnel sustained severe damage during Superstorm Sandy in Oct. 2012. The deterioration has continued since then. There have been “frequent service disruptions and emergency maintenance that impacted thousands,” the release said.
While the Trump administration fought the initial restraining order, it never disputed that it “flagrantly violates federal law,” the judge explained in the ruling.
The judge also suggested that the administration ought not withhold pledged federal funding again. However, Trump has been doing that since the start of his second term. The most recent example is that Trump will deny U.S. Postal Service to states that refuse to turn over their voter rolls to him.
The federal Department of Transportation claimed that it was “committed to ensuring hard-working taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly and do not fund unconstitutional, discriminatory contracting practices.”
It didn’t elaborate on why the Hudson Tunnel would be “unconstitutional,” however.
James argued that the move by DOT violated federal law and the judge ultimately agreed.
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