Trump digging his own hole on tunnel 'fiasco': analysis

MS NOW Producer Steve Benen says President Donald Trump can’t get his story straight on his attempt to extort New Jersey and New York by withholding congressional appropriated infrastructure funds.

“When the Gateway tunnel construction project was initially approved, both parties recognized the endeavor as one of the nation’s most important infrastructure investments,” said Benen. “[But] 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.”

With the sprawling $16 billion project already underway and bills mounting by the day, the infuriated blue states cried foul and sued the administration.

In February a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to cough up the money. The judge then later followed that decision with what amounted to an order to hurry up, 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,” said Benen.

Then, on Monday, Trump condemned the project on social media platform as a “future boondoggle,” which prompted Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) to call the post “a completely unhinged tantrum from someone who didn’t get their way.”

The White House had floated unlocking the Gateway money in exchange for Democrats’ agreeing to rename Penn Station and Washington Dulles International Airport after Trump before U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas shut the extortion scheme down. But Trump claims “ certain politicians and construction union heads, not me — IT IS JUST MORE FAKE NEWS! … Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

However, MS NOW stands by its report that Trump “came up with an idea for a transaction,” by telling 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. For his part, Schumer wasted no time slamming Trump’s claim, calling it an “absolute lie.”

But now Trump keeps “digging” his own hole on the “Gateway tunnel project fiasco,” said Benen, pointing out that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively confirmed a few days later that the Democratic senator was correct and that it was indeed Trump who first floated the idea, not Schumer.

But leave it to Trump to come back and try to anchor down the lie, said Benen.

“A week later …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.’” Said Benen.

“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,” Benen said.

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