The DeVory Darkins Show - Trump PULLS THE PLUG on California Rail after the project goes BUST

Episode Date: August 18, 2026

Trump PULLS THE PLUG on California High Speed Rail after this announcement. This comes after Sean Duffy announced that he would cancel $2 billion funds from California after the high speed rail project has officially gone BUST. FOLLOW ME:⁠https://www.x.com/devorydarkins⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/devorydarkins⁠⁠https://www.rumble.com/c/devorydarkins⁠⁠https://devory.wtf.tv⁠BUY ME A COFFEE:⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/devorydarkins⁠SHOP OUR MERCH STORE:⁠https://store.devorydarkins.com⁠BUSINESS INQUIRIES:⁠[e-mail]⁠

So Gavin Newsom has been given the cold shoulder by the Trump administration. Secretary Duffy announced that he is diverting two billion of funds that was for the high-speed rail to nowhere in California to the state of Ohio. This is another blow to Gavin Newsom. Let's hear it from Secretary Duffy himself. Today to announce the next steps in the Trump administration's agenda to usher in the golden age of rail in America, $5 billion investment into America's rail system. Two billion of these dollars actually are coming from an investment that the last administration made in high-speed rail in California.

I mean, the train, Gavin, you got to get rid of the train. The train, I say this as a friend, you got to let that train go. Let the train go. And inherited a mess. We put it back on track. People say, why can't Americans have incredible rail like Europe or Asia? I say, why not? We should have great rail in America.

Our citizens, our constituents deserve that. Giving us great rail starts with a massive investment like you're seeing here today. So I want you guys to really reason with this. The Trump administration, for all of the criticism, just took $2 billion away from California and directed that money to a real American infrastructure. For years, the federal government let California Democrats essentially used a high-speed rail in a way that was a limitless credit card, No accountability, no oversight, which has led to no results.

And that's why I applaud Secretary Sean Duffy officially stripping that $2 billion from that project that goes to nowhere and giving it to people who are actually doing something. And this is Cincinnati Union Terminal. It looks historic to me. And I'm pretty sure there are places across the country that also deserve the money. But now that the money is gone, let's do this. The national media is finally willing to admit what this project always was, which is an utter failure. Here's what 60 minutes was just running to expose Gavin Newsom watch.

I think that the California high-speed rail nightmare is the probably quintessential example of government waste and mismanagement. You say this needs to stop. He's a president, Vince Fong, a Republican from Bakersfield, sits on the House Transportation Committee. He says that when California voters first approved high-speed rail, the promise and price tag were more marketing. campaign than realistic projection. We're now in 2026. There are no trains. There's no track laid. It's a complete bait and switch. If I vote for a mansion in Malibu by next year and someone says, actually, you know what, in five years we're going to have a doghouse in Modesto. How do things go so off the rails? The business plan that was put out in 2008 was very theoretical. This is what we think

is going to happen. And it became very clear that they didn't have the specifics worked out. So imagine that. You now have 60 minutes essentially exposing Gavin Newsom's high-speed rail to nowhere. They never had the specifics worked out. Why? Well, because the actual construction was never the main priority. What was the main priority? Well, here's an example. A set of a working train. It was a gravy train for these people, the politicians in the local areas, the construction companies, the labor unions, they all got paid, but not the actual people of California who said or who were told, rather, that it was only going to cost $33 billion. Now it's up to $125 billion. We're past 20 years on this mess. And the guy who's been championed this the entire time, he still hasn't given up.

He won't let it go. So let's go back to 2014 to remind you of what he was telling people then about this project. Watch. I was out there promoting a $33 billion project. I was out there promoting ridership that was 55% higher than the current projected ridership. I was there promoting a third of the money

coming from the private sector, 25 to 33% from the federal government. I was out there promoting the fact that this would generate revenue and not cost taxpayers, subsidy. I was out there promoting it. And none of those things now are taking shape. It's a 68 plus billion dollar project. They just announced two months ago,

went up another billion just for this new 130 mile first phase. He started with 33 billion. It went to 96. We value engineered it. So it's no longer quote unquote high speed rail. It's higher speed rail. We wildly overstated the ridership projections. We manipulated some of the revenue projections.

I know you're not stupid and neither am I. But I like to believe he knew this was a burden from the very beginning. And he knew he was placing this burden on the working class. This is why Democrats have failed the working class because they continue to invest in projects that don't deliver results, but take money out of the pockets of the people they say they want to serve. When he was safely out of power as Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom was perfectly willing to admit that the numbers were cooked

and taxpayers were being taken for a ride. Isn't that interesting? So he admits it then, but he won't admit it today. He confessed on tape that the state widely overstated what was going to be required for this project, manipulated their revenue projections, and lied about the real costs of the bonds to the public. In that same interview, just to be clear,

he admitted something that's even worse than what I just told you. Watch. Analysis would conclude that there's no private sector money and there's no capacity for this to be built. But that said, if that were the process, you would kill the project. Of course, as you break with the tribe, there's consequences. I doubt very much, even the most optimistic assessments of the next decade, the facts seem overwhelming that this project is not going to materialize in our lifetime. So let me get this straight.

He said that the high-speed rail won't be built in our lifetime. Did he actually say that? But was he fumbling over his words? Did he mean to say something else? No, you know exactly what he said. Meaning it's okay to continue to tax Californians and demand federal bailouts for a train that the governor himself admitted would never carry a single passenger while he was alive. The state is not projecting that.

just the first starter leg between Bakersfield and Merced won't even be finished until at least 2003. This is the definition of fraud, waste, and abuse. Okay. I mean, there's no other way to describe this. I really believe this story should be used as a case study and also as a way to make people laugh, which is what Carl Higby did on Newsmax when he said this. Speaking of Rails, California.

They have none. They've spent $126 billion on a high-speed rail, and there is no rail. None. There's none, and they're like, we're going to run out of money. We need more money to keep this project going. For what? Yeah, for what? To waste your money.

I actually think that the people out in California, because the money's got to go somewhere, right? Somebody has received money, whether it's from an environmental study or whatever it might be, an engineering survey, that they're just going to keep this going. They're probably sitting back thinking, dude, this is the best. best game of the world we got going right now. We don't have to do a darn thing, and we're getting rich out here in California. They love it. Hey, boys, you know, these guys had vowels at the end of their name called.

They'd all be in a RICO case. You know, imagine I got a couple of my Italian friends. Listen, this is what we're going to do. We're going to say we're building this train station, you know. But we're not going to do a darn thing. We're going to hire all you, you guys. Like Bob said, we've got 10,000 surveys. Who cares?

Do anything. Pay everybody when they ask you what's what I'm going to say, wait. It's held up. Guys, he essentially broke it down. And you have to find some way to laugh about all of this because if you don't, I mean, you're going to slip into doom and gloom, right? But the silver lining here is Gavin Newsom's done.

Okay. He will no longer be the governor of California, as you guys know, within the next year. I don't believe he's going to be the next president of the United States. I mean, that would be a true IQ test for the nation. But on Carl's point, a project that never gets finished, is a project that never stops paying out the consulting class, the environmental lawyers, the labor unions, the construction companies, and overall the political machine. The project's own inspector general just warned that they face a massive funding gap,

which was announced multitude of times this year alone, and can run out of catch as soon as December 2007, all while paying for endless surveys and studies, meaning what? This high-speed rail will be gutting taxpayers of their money for years to come until someone has the balls to shut this down finally and walk away. So now I want to hear from you guys in the comments section to this particular question. Answer it, please. When a state government spends more than 15 years running a multi-billion dollar slush fund, is it the current administration's responsibility to bypass Congress and claw that money back? Me personally, the answer is absolutely. I think at the end of the day, at the end of the day, elected representatives are still stewards of

taxpayer money. And when they have an opportunity to put someone who's essentially been defrauding the taxpayers on notice, they have to take that chance. So again, share your thoughts and answers in the comments section below. Share the show with your family and friends. Please hit that like button and subscribe to the show. If you guys want updates, particularly about what happened yesterday with Hakeem Jeffries, finally turning on the Democrat Socialists of America. Click on that video because is coming up right now.