By Mary Rooke
When Democrats blocked a Republican-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the federal government funded, it’s unlikely they considered the reality of handing President Donald Trump unprecedented executive powers.
Trump told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” that Democrats’ move to shut down the government was a “mistake” because it gave him the authority to slash their pet projects without impunity. He’s got his eyes set on one multi-billion dollar project close to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s heart.
The government shutdown, dubbed the Schumer Shutdown, was triggered Oct. 1 when Democrats refused to vote for the funding bill unless Republicans gave in to demands to renew expiring premium tax credits under the Affordable Care Act. Democrats seem to have acted shortsightedly, as their move gave Trump the executive power via impoundment authority to begin cutting left-wing programs funded by taxpayer money.
While speaking with Bartiromo about the Democrats’ “No Kings” protest in D.C., which Schumer is expected to attend and speak at, Trump announced that he will be cutting a $20 billion project that Schumer has fought to fund for years.
“Well, Chuck is, you know, at the end of the line. He’s being beaten by everybody that they poll against him,” Trump said. “And you know what he did is he did the right thing a couple of years ago on something like this. And he got hurt by his party. And it doesn’t … I don’t think it matters to him. I think he’s just so dead that he’ll do anything.”
“We’re cutting a $20 billion project that Schumer fought for 15 years to get, and I’m cutting the project. The project is gonna be dead. It’s just pretty much dead right now,” Trump added.
The project Trump is referring to in the interview is the Gateway Program, according to Fox News.
Schumer has been fighting for the Gateway Program since at least 2012, following the cancellation of its predecessor, the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel project, in October 2010. The program is a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure initiative aimed at expanding and modernizing rail capacity along a critical 10-mile segment of the Northeast Corridor (NEC) between Newark, New Jersey, and New York Penn Station. It primarily focuses on building new rail tunnels under the Hudson River to supplement the century-old North River Tunnels, replacing aging bridges such as the Portal Bridge over the Hackensack River, and enhancing Amtrak and NJ Transit services.
The project has been marred with setbacks due to unchecked government bloat, with costs ballooning far beyond initial estimates due to bureaucratic inefficiencies, over-engineering, and unnecessary add-ons. The project’s price tag has escalated from around $13.5 billion in 2011 to $42 billion for full implementation, including elements such as Penn Station expansions that critics argue aren’t essential for core tunnel fixes.
Under the Biden administration, Schumer finally received the funding necessary in 2021 to push Gateway forward through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which gave billions for NEC upgrades. However, by 2025, tunneling still had not begun. When the “Schumer Shutdown” began, $18 billion was withheld due to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, with Trump declaring that the Hudson Tunnel Project had been terminated. (Democrats Making Serious Miscalculation That Could Hand GOP Senate Seat)
Democrats continue to hold the federal government hostage, leaving millions of Americans without federal support and government workers, like U.S. military members, without pay. But their move to give Trump unprecedented leverage allows him to eliminate unwanted left-wing programs, like Gateway. Targeting a project Schumer has been fighting for is a tactical move that ultimately highlights how Democrats’ stalling strategy allows Trump to force him and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries back to negotiations.
