WASHINGTON —New York’s Gateway Tunnel project may be halted, based on a brief comment in a lengthy news conference by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Oct. 15.
While not identifying by name the project to add two tracks under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York’s Penn Station, Trump suggested it was the latest in a series of projects supported by Democrats to be targeted during the shutdown of the federal government.
“Russell Vought is really terminating tremendous numbers of Democrat projects,” Trump said, referring to the director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to a transcript published by the political site Roll Call. “… I mean, the project in Manhattan, the project in New York, it’s billions and billions of dollars that Schumer has worked 20 years to get. It’s terminated. Tell him it’s terminated.” Trump has blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) for the shutdown, although Republicans control both houses of Congress as well as the presidency.
Trump did not elaborate further, and it was unclear if that meant that billions of dollars for the project awarded during the Obama and Biden administrations were being cut off. The first Trump administration did not support the project.
The news site Politico has since reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation has no plans to kill the project, according to an official granted anonymity to discuss the matter. White House spokeman Kush Desai told Politico that “federal funding of these projects remains halted. As it relates to the federal government, these projects are not going through, and that is a fact.”
Vought previously funding for the tunnel and New York’s Second Avenue Subway extension was being suspended pending a review of contracts in regard to the Trump administration’s efforts to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. [See “Trump administration freezes …,” Trains.com, Oct. 1, 2025]. The New York Times reports the White House referred questions about the comment to the Office of Management and Budget, which did not immediately respond. The Times previously reported work on the tunnel, in progress on both sides of the Hudson, had continued since the funding freeze, although it was unclear how long existing funds would last.
Schumer, in a social media post, called Gateway “the most important infrastructure project in America — period,” and said an effort to kill it is “petty revenge politics that would screw hundreds of thousands of New York and New Jersey commuters, chock off our economy, and kill good-paying jobs.”
— Updated Oct. 17 at 6:45 a.m. CT to include information from Politico story.
Schumer should know all about “petty revenge politics…” since under his leadership, or lack of it, is what has shut down the government for over 21 days. The “Schumer Shutdown” is not what the majority of Americans want or voted for. I think all of Congress should have their pay shut down so they can know how the constituents are feeling, especially those in the military and those flying and worried about the shortage of needed Air Traffic Controllers that can’t be trained while the Government is shut down STUPID!
The Republicans control Congress, the Presidency and the Courts. Schumer definitely deserves some fault for this shutdown but the majority of the blame falls on Mike Johnson for not bringing congress back in session.