Trump criticizes California over suit against border wall

In this March 13, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump talks with reporters as he reviews border wall prototypes in San Diego. California’s attorney general filed a lawsuit Monday, Feb. 18, 2019, against Trump’s emergency declaration to fund a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Xavier Becerra released a statement Monday saying 16 states — including California — allege the Trump administration’s action violates the Constitution. (Photo by EVAN VUCCI / AP)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to criticize California’s lead role in a multistate lawsuit challenging his emergency declaration to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Trump sought to link California’s high-speed rail project to his plan for the wall.

He claimed the “failed Fast Train project” was beset by “world record setting” cost overruns and had become “hundreds of times more expensive than the desperately needed Wall!”

The estimated cost for a San Francisco-to-Los Angeles train has more than doubled to $77 billion. That’s about 13 times more than the $5.7 billion Trump sought unsuccessfully from Congress to build the wall.

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the rail project “as currently planned, would cost too much and take too long.”

He said the state would focus on completing a shorter segment in the state’s Central Valley while seeking new funding sources for the longer route.

Trump declared an emergency to obtain wall funding beyond the $1.4 billion Congress approved for border security.

California and 15 other states are parties to the lawsuit filed Monday in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that alleges Trump’s declaration is unconstitutional. /atm