No, because if CA actually sues the Feds over this they will win the suit. The PRIIA already gave the money over, if USDOT tries to undo that they have to prove that CA is not building a high speed rail system. This is ludicrous when CA is, despite Newsom's inability to communicate so. All of this boils down to botched remarks he made during his state-of-the-state address.
It's debatable if it will actually get to that stage though. As what happened when Trump tried to deny Caltrain their grant money, Pelosi will drag Chao in for a meeting and Chao will either have to take a bullet for Trump in having Congress blame her for this, or blame Trump and let Congress deal with it. Last time she chose the latter, because she honestly doesn't seem like the type of person who would ruin her reputation for Trump.
But if she does, then Chao will suddenly find her job will get much harder as Dems will play the same game in regards to highway spending, which will probably ruin Republican states as 90% of their highway money comes from USDOT. This whole thing bumps back to a budget fight that Dems are far more likely to win, as there are more pro-highway privatization Republicans than there are anti-rail Republicans. Meanwhile CA will win their lawsuit, while cap-and-trade money keeps construction rolling.
The most damaging thing Trump could do is tell the EPA to stop approving CAHSR EIRs, but this would just cause it's own lawsuit and would compel Congress to strip him of that power like they stripped his office of Impoundment powers in the 1970s. And even then since CA's CEQA approvals process is more stringent then the EPA's (to a real fault as 5+ years of CAHSR delay is attributable to the CEQA), CAHSR could probably just ignore the EPA.
There is also the frighteningly real plausibility that Trump will simply relent if he's given border wall funding, which would demonstrate that he is exactly what people think he is.
>>1332642>>>/pol/ 
