By Tim Stickings For Dailymail.com and Reuters
Published: 10:10 GMT, 14 February 2019 | Updated: 10:10 GMT, 14 February 2019
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California's Governor has refused to return $3.5billion in federal funding for a struggling high-speed rail project after Donald Trump told him: 'We want that money back'.
Gavin Newsom hit back at the President after abandoning a $77billion plan for a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Trump called the project a 'disaster' and demanded the money back but Newsom said it was 'California's money', taking a dig at the President by suggesting he was desperate for border wall funding.
California had hoped to build a 520-mile line where trains could travel at 220mph but the project, which was years behind and billions over budget, has now been scaled down to a 119-mile link from Merced to Bakersfield.
California Governor Gavin Newsom (pictured during his State of the State address in Sacramento) has refused to pay back $3.5billion in high-speed rail funding from Washington
President Donald Trump, pictured in the Oval Office yesterday, called the project a 'disaster' and demanded California return the money granted by the Obama administration in 2010
Trump took aim at the Democratic Governor on Twitter, saying: 'California has been forced to cancel the massive bullet train project after having spent and wasted many billions of dollars.
'They owe the Federal Government three and a half billion dollars. We want that money back now. Whole project is a "green" disaster!'
Newsom fired back shortly afterwards, saying: 'Fake news. We're building
