White House Clash Over Trump’s Penn Station Plan
White House press secretary contradicts Trump over Penn Station renaming amid Gateway Tunnel funding freeze and growing political backlash.
White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt refuted Donald Trump's claims that he didn't ask for New York's Penn Station to be named after him.
"That was something the president said in his conversation with Chuck Schumer," Levitt said on Tuesday when asked why the president was interested in renaming the building. "Why not?"
Her comments come after last week's reports that he would unfreeze millions of dollars in federal funding for a $16 billion New York infrastructure project if Senator Schumer agreed to rename New York's Penn Station and Virginia's Dulles International Airport after him.
On Friday, Trump claimed that the idea to rename the two buildings was actually the Senate Minority Leader's.
"He suggested it to me," the president told reporters while traveling to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. "Chuck Schumer suggested I rename Penn Station to Trump Station. Dulles Airport is actually different."
Soon after reports of this conversation surfaced, Schumer posted an angry response online.
"Absolutely false. He knows it. Everyone knows it," Schumer wrote. "Only one man can restart the project, and he can do it with the snap of his fingers."
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As of Tuesday night, Schumer had not responded to Levitt's online claims. The Independent contacted the New York senator's office for comment.
Trump had withheld $200 million in federal funding for the Gateway Tunnel project in New York City in October, even though the funding had already been approved by Congress.
Work on the tunnel, which will connect New York and New Jersey and eventually replace other aging infrastructure connecting the states, can no longer continue due to Trump's refusal to unfreeze federal funding.
The Gateway Development Commission, which oversees the project, sued the federal government last week over the funding freeze. Judge Janet Vargas in Manhattan ruled against the Trump administration and ordered it to release the funding on Friday, the same day Trump made his comments about Schumer.
But soon after, the Department of Transportation appealed the decision and applied for a temporary stay, arguing that if forced to do so, there would be no "clear way" to get the money back. Work on the project had not resumed as of Tuesday, and a hearing is scheduled for Wednesday to determine next steps.
The Independent has contacted the White House and the Department of Transportation for comment.
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The Trump administration never gave a specific reason for withholding funds and blamed Democrats for refusing to negotiate to restart the project.
New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill criticized the administration's delay.
"I took the President to court on Friday, and I won. The court ordered the release of that money, and he still hasn't done so," Sherrill said on Monday. "Here we are, all this stuff waiting to be put to work, all of you who are not working, because the President of the United States cares more about politics than the men and women working in this country."
Sherrill said that the delays in the New Jersey Transit system were related to her funding demands.
New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand also reacted angrily to the alleged naming deal in a post on X.
"These naming rights are not tradable as part of any negotiation, and neither is the respect of the people of New York," Gillibrand wrote. "I demand that the President put the people first and unfreeze this project and all the other projects that his administration has held hostage for personal gain."
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