President Donald Trump has, according to several reports, claimed he would stop withholding $16 billion in federal funding that had been approved to fund the Gateway Tunnel Project connecting New York and New Jersey only if New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport are renamed after him.
Trump put the brakes on providing funds for the massive project in September. Existing funding was due to run out today, forcing a halt in work on the project.
Neither Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York nor the White House had confirmed reports that Trump made the renaming demands to Schumer last month.
On Feb. 6, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement: “This is ridiculous. These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers. At a time when New Yorkers are already being crushed by high costs under the Trump tariffs, the president continues to put his own narcissism over the good-paying union jobs this project provides and the extraordinary economic impact the Gateway tunnel will bring.
“I demand that the president put people first and unfreeze this project and all the others his administration has been holding hostage for his personal gain,” Gillibrand said.
A demand from Trump to rename Penn Station and Dulles Airport after him would fit with previous actions to make his name prominent that have included adding his name to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, adding his name to the U.S. Institute for Peace building in Washington, offering Trump Gold Cards to be sold for $5 million that would lead to U.S. citizenship, and posting a TrumpRX website for prescription drugs.
New York Attorney General Letitia James and New Jersey Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Trump administration to try to force a release of the withheld funds.
After four months of covering costs with limited operating funds, the plaintiffs warned that construction would be forced to completely shut down. New York and New Jersey were seeking emergency relief to prevent construction from grinding to a halt.
“Allowing this project to stop would put one of the country’s most heavily used transit corridors at risk,” said James. “Our tunnels are already under strain and losing this project could be disastrous for commuters, workers, and our regional economy. We are taking the administration to court to prevent a shutdown that would ripple far beyond New York and New Jersey.”
The Hudson Tunnel Project is the central component of the Gateway Program, a long-planned effort to revitalize Hudson River rail travel. The project will repair the 116-year-old North River tunnel and build a new tunnel beneath the Hudson River. The tunnel was severely damaged during Superstorm Sandy and continues to deteriorate, causing frequent service disruptions and emergency maintenance that impact hundreds of thousands of commuters. Construction on the Hudson Tunnel Project began in 2023 and is currently underway across multiple active sites in New York and New Jersey.
