When the Gateway tunnel construction project was initially approved, both parties recognized the endeavor as one of the nation’s most important infrastructure investments.
Last fall, Donald Trump cut off funds for the project anyway, ostensibly because the administration wanted to know whether contracts were awarded with “diversity, equity and inclusion” considerations in mind.
This led to predictable court fights, which haven’t gone well for the White House: Last week, a federal judge ordered Team Trump to reopen the funding spigot, allowing workers to renew the project connecting New York and New Jersey via a pair of train tubes. That should have ended the matter, though Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy quickly appealed the ruling.
On Monday afternoon, the president published an item to his social media platform condemning the entire project, calling it a “future boondoggle” in a missive Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey described as “a completely unhinged tantrum from someone who didn’t get their way.”
And then there’s the whole naming issue. From Trump’s online statement:
Also, the naming of PENN Station (I LOVE Pennsylvania, but it is a direct competitor to New York, and ‘eating New York’s lunch!’) to TRUMP STATION, was brought up by certain politicians and construction union heads, not me — IT IS JUST MORE FAKE NEWS! … Thank you for your attention to this matter!
For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that Penn Station was named after the Pennsylvania Railroad, not the state of Pennsylvania. Let’s also overlook the president’s idiosyncratic approach to grammar.
Instead, let’s take a fresh look at his interest in naming things after himself.
Last week, MaddowBlog confirmed that Trump came up with an idea for a transaction. The president told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he’d restore the money for the Gateway tunnel construction project if Democrats agreed to rename Dulles International Airport and New York’s Penn Station after him.
The Republican’s pitch was, for all intents and purposes, an attempt at extortion: If Democrats wanted to save a critical infrastructure project and prevent job losses, they had to indulge Trump’s obsession with self-glorification.
Soon after, a reporter asked the president to confirm the story. The president replied that, in his version of events, “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.”
That is, Trump would have us believe that the Democratic Senate leader, among others, approached him with the idea of renaming an airport and one of the nation’s most storied train stations after a president he vehemently opposes.
Schumer wasted little time in responding to this absurdity, calling the claim an “absolute lie.” A few days later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively said the Democratic senator was correct, confirming that it was Trump who floated the idea, not the longtime New York lawmaker.
A week later, however, Trump decided to contradict his press secretary and claim that “certain” unnamed people brought it up, all while claiming he now considers the story (that his own White House confirmed) to be “fake news.”
One thing the president has never understood is that if he expects the public to believe his nonsense, he needs to peddle more plausible claims.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
