Trump guts more NYC funding as administration pulls $18 billion for key projects, including Second Ave Subway

Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News on Oct 1, 2025

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NEW YORK — The Trump administration opened a new front in what appears to be a financial assault on New York City with an announcement Wednesday it is axing $18 billion tied to two crucial infrastructure projects.

“Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles,” Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s controversial head of the Office of Management and Budget and co-author of Project 2025, tweeted Wednesday morning.

“Specifically, the Hudson Tunnel Project and the Second Ave Subway,” Vought clarified in a subsequent tweet.

The move does not appear to be related to the government shutdown and comes the day after Trump gutted critical funding for the NYPD’s counter-terrorism unit in a move blasted by the department as “dangerous.”

The mechanism by which Vought sought to defund the projects critical to New York commuters was not immediately clear as much of the federal government’s matching funding for both projects has already been committed.

The Daily News is reaching out to Gov. Hochul, Mayor Eric Adams and the MTA for comment.

Federal dollars are expected to pick up $3.4 billion of the tab on phase two of the Second Ave. Subway, which would restore rapid transit service into East Harlem for the first time in more than 75 years.

The Hudson River Tunnel project — which aims to open two new commuter rail tunnels between New Jersey and Penn Station as part of a wide-ranging effort to improve capacity at the nation’s busiest train station — is also reliant on federal checks that have already been signed.

The feds committed $6.9 billion to much fanfare in July 2024, on top of $3.8 billion in federal funding from the Department of Transportation’s Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program, and $2 billion in federal dollars fronted by Amtrak, which would controls the rails set to run through the tunnel.

Just last month, federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy joked about putting Trump’s name on Penn Station while lauding the administration’s efforts to overhaul the station — a project that is, in part, reliant on a new tunnel under the Hudson.

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