Steve Hilton Will Stop the ‘Bullshit’ Train in its Tracks… ‘If only they had laid any…’

“HERE is the monument to 16 years of failed one party rule. $200 billion over budget, 30 years late – this is not a ‘bullet train’, it’s a bullshit train,” says gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton. “As governor I will stop it in its tracks. If only they had laid any…”

HERE is the monument to 16 years of failed one party rule.

$200 billion over budget, 30 years late – this is not a 'bullet train', it's a bullshit train.

As governor I will stop it in its tracks. If only they had laid any… pic.twitter.com/vqEG0M8y3Z

— Steve Hilton (@SteveHiltonx) May 23, 2026

If only they had laid any tracks… let that sink in. No operational high-speed tracks laid on the corridor yet – 18 years later.

California’s High-Speed Rail boondoggle is now estimated to cost taxpayers $231 billion, up from its original $33.5 billion price tag in 2008 when voters passed Proposition 1A.

The 2008 ballot promise was that this sexy new train was supposed to whisk us from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 2.5 hours in 2020, for only $33 billion.

Now, as Hilton reports, the latest scheme is that the train will take us from San Francisco to Merced on the regular train tracks, then from Merced to Bakersfield on high speed rail (whenever they finish it), then from Bakersfield to LA in a bus, which will take 2.5 hours, which will now be finished by 2030 for $231 billion.

Governor Gavin Newsom claims that “This is the only High Speed Rail of its kind anywhere in the United States of America.”

He’s right about that. The Brightline train in Florida is actually up and running, completed in 2023, traveling from Miami to Orlando, with extensions, with top speeds of 125 mph on dedicated segments. It’s privately operated, successful in ridership, and often called “higher-speed rail” rather than true HSR. There are train stations in Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Orlando at the Orlando International Airport. It takes 3.5 hours Miami to Orlando, and 2 hours West Palm Beach to Orlando.

The total cost for the full Miami to Orlando train system: Approximately $6 billion (including infrastructure, stations, maintenance facilities, track upgrades, grade crossing safety improvements, and rolling stock). This was privately financed (with some public support like tax-exempt bonds and station contributions, according to CNBC.

California’s train to nowhere has received $23 billion in combined state + federal funding commitments through late 2024 (mostly state bonds from Prop 1A, cap-and-trade, and earlier federal grants), but actual expenditures lag behind due to ongoing construction, according to the HSRA 2025 Supplemental Project Update Report.

“Our country has never seen a fiscal disaster of this magnitude,” California Rep. Kevin Kiley recently said on X.

Well, to be fair, Gov. Gavin Newsom has blown more than $37 billion on homelessness since 2019, according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office 2025-2026 budget overview.

Voters were deceived by the original High Speed Rail ballot summary and language in Proposition 1A from 2008, but the state’s lawmakers seem to find that fact inconvenient.

And, the entire project is lacking in private, public and debt funding to complete even the most minor operating segment – nearly 20 years later.

FRAUD COVERUP: Instead of stopping the massive fraud happening in state programs at your expense,  CA Democrats are covering it all up by passing AB 1608 to allow the High Speed Rail project to hide evidence of fraud from the public! I confronted them on the Assembly Floor with… pic.twitter.com/mKf3RhmDmU

— Carl DeMaio (@carldemaio) May 19, 2026

Even as horrific hospice and Medi-Cal fraud is uncovered in California, Democrats in the California Legislature are trying to cover up fraudulent High Speed Rail spending with AB 1608.

AB 1608 bill analysis by the Assembly Transportation Committee committee verifies this:

“Authorizes the IG to hold a report it produces, or a portion of that report, confidential for a period of time if it determines that the report, or a portion of the report would describe or otherwise reveal weaknesses, including those involving information security, physical security, fraud detection controls, or pending litigation that would pose a substantial and articulable risk to the project or to state operations if publicly disclosed.”