NEW YORK (WABC) — As talks continue on Gateway Tunnel funding, President Trump recently suggested he would unfreeze $16 billion in funding if Sen. Schumer supports renaming Penn Station in Midtown and Dulles Airport in Virginia after the president, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.
Sources told ABC that Schumer rejected Trump’s offer.
A Schumer official said the senator has “nothing to trade” and the president stopped the funding and can restart the funding without any congressional action, “with a snap of his fingers.”
Democrats seized on the development Thursday night as an example of Trump’s negotiating priorities, prompting numerous social media posts.
One of the more notable was Gov. Kathy Hochul’s press office posting a photo of Trump Tower renamed “Hochul Tower” — calling it her “counteroffer.”
And Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called it “ridiculous.”
“These naming rights aren’t tradable as part of any negotiations, and neither is the dignity of New Yorkers,” she said on social media. “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.”
Officials in New York and New Jersey said if the money isn’t freed-up by Friday, the project would stop, leaving approximately 1,000 construction jobs in jeopardy.
Leaders from both states will appear before a federal judge Friday, seeking the restoration of billions of dollars that had already been approved by Congress for the Gateway project. The project would double the number of rail lines between New York and New Jersey.
New York and New Jersey are asking the judge to declare the funding suspension unlawful and to order payments to resume immediately so construction can continue without interruption. If funding is not restored, officials warn the project could stop altogether.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said the two states are united in their legal challenge.
“The states of New Jersey and New York are joining together to sue the Trump administration to force it to stop holding the Gateway Tunnel project hostage in a political fight,” Sherrill said.
Sherrill added that the president has the power to put the project back on track with a single phone call.
The $15 billion project is already about $1 billion underway, with roughly three quarters of the funding expected to come from the federal government. New York and New Jersey were set to split the remaining $3 billion.
(ABC News contributed to this report.)
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