In October, Donald Trump halted funding on the Gateway tunnel construction project, one of the nation’s most important infrastructure investments: a $16 billion endeavor that would connect New York and New Jersey via a pair of train tubes that would benefit the entire region.
The good news is, the president recently signaled a willingness to release the resources that would allow work to continue and prevent significant layoffs. The bad news is, he had a transaction in mind: Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that the money would be restored if Democrats agreed to rename Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station after Trump.
The president’s pitch was, for all intents and purposes, an attempt at extortion: If Democrats wanted to save a critical infrastructure project and prevent the job losses, they had to indulge Trump’s obsession with self-glorification.
The White House made little effort to deny the accuracy of the reporting, and on Friday night, during a brief Q&A on Air Force One, a reporter asked the Republican, “Can you set the record straight? There were reports circulating that you told Chuck Schumer that in order to restore funding for the Gateway train tunnel in New York, New Jersey, you would want Penn Station and Dulles Airport to be named after you. Is that true?”
The ideal answer would have been, “No, of course not, that would be insane.” Alas, that’s not what Trump said.
Rather, the president claimed that it was the Senate minority leader’s idea.
“He suggested that to me,” Trump replied. “Chuck Schumer suggested that to me about changing the name. … It was suggested to me by numerous people, unions, Democrats, Republicans, a lot of people suggested.”
In other words, we’re supposed to believe that the Democratic Senate leader, among others, approached Trump with the idea of renaming an airport and one of the nation’s most storied train stations after the president they vehemently oppose.
Schumer wasted little time in responding to this absurdity, calling the claim an “absolute lie.”
I continue to believe that in a normal political environment, this would be considered a stunning scandal. Imagine what the political conversation would sound like if Joe Biden unilaterally shut down funding for a critical infrastructure project in South Carolina, and the Democratic president then quietly told Lindsey Graham, “I’m prepared to release the funds if Republicans agree to name the Port of Charleston and Atlanta’s airport after me.”
Then imagine what would happen if, after the gambit was exposed, Biden told the press, “Graham suggested the idea to me.”
GOP officials would immediately conclude that the Democratic president had lost his mind, but they’d also likely condemn the obvious abuse as an offense warranting impeachment.
And yet, here we are, watching this same scenario unfold.
As for the underlying legal fight over the White House’s tactics, U.S. District Court Judge Jeannette Vargas on Friday blocked the administration from suspending funds for the Gateway project. It was a preliminary ruling that allowed the investments to continue while broader legal issues continue to be adjudicated. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
