The White House has blamed “Democrat incompetence and red tape” as the reason behind the delays and costs of California’s high-speed rail, just days after President Donald Trump withdrew federal funding for the project.

The comments came in response to California Senator Alex Padilla, who accused the White House of playing “political games” with the largest high-speed rail project in the country.

Newsweek contacted Padilla’s office for a response to the White House’s comments via email and over the phone.

Why It Matters

Trump has been a longstanding critic of California’s high-speed rail project, having previously described the project as a “green disaster” and a “waste”. This culminated in a statement last week where the president declared that it was “a stupid project that should have never been built,” and removed all federal funding for it.

However, California’s Democratic leadership, including Governor Gavin Newsom, remain fiercely supportive of the project, and have repeatedly defended it from presidential ire.

What To Know

The Trump administration slammed the project’s management for “incompetence” in response to Padilla’s claim that “Trump and his admin are hellbent on killing the project.”

Padilla said on Monday: “They’d rather waste billions and lose jobs for political games. California is leading the nation in realizing the vision of building the nation’s first true high-speed rail –– and I’m going to continue fighting for it.”

Reacting to Padilla’s comments, the White House said that Democratic management and bureaucracy was to blame for the project’s cost and delays, rather than the federal funding withdrawal.

“If Alex Padilla really cared about the California high speed rail project, he’d ask his fellow California Democrats why the project is decades behind schedule and overbudget by tens of billions of dollars,” Kush Desai, the White House deputy press secretary, told Newsweek.

“Democrat incompetence and red tape is killing the high speed rail project, not the Trump administration.”

Democrats in California have increasingly upped their rhetoric towards Trump over his handling of the project. Shortly after the cuts were announced, Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesperson for Newsom, told Newsweek: “Hard pass on fiscal tips from the self-described ‘King of Debt’ who ran a steak company, a casino, and a global economy—all into the ground.

“With 50 major structures built, walking away now as we enter the track-laying phase would be reckless—wasting billions already invested and letting job-killers cede a generational infrastructure advantage to China.”

What People Are Saying

The California High-Speed Rail Authority told Newsweek: “The project has faced many challenges, including right-of-way acquisition, pre-construction activities like third party agreements to relocate utilities in the system’s path, various permitting requirements under state and federal law, time consuming and redundant state and federal environmental review processes, legal challenges related to those reviews, and a lack of full project funding which has resulted in costly delays and inefficient delivery.”

What Happens Next

The project is expected to enter its track-laying phase later this year, with the 171-mile segment between Merced and Bakersfield being the focus of Phase 1.