The White House is withholding billions of dollars of funding for mass transit projects in Chicago as part of President Donald Trump’s government shutdown revenge campaign against Democrats.
“$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects—specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project—have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” budget director and Project 2025 architect Russell Vought wrote in a post on X.
The U.S. Department of Transportation wrote in a follow-up post that the two projects were under administrative review to determine whether they violated a new interim rule that bars race- and sex-based contracting requirements from federal grants.
For nearly 60 years, an executive order signed by President Lyndon Johnson prevented federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Trump revoked the order in January, claiming that it created “illegal preferences and discrimination.”
The order, however, didn’t give preferential treatment based on race or gender. Instead, it required some contracts and subcontractors to “take affirmative action” to prevent discrimination and promote equal employment opportunity.
The Trump administration has nevertheless announced that $18 billion worth of projects in New York and now the $2.1 billion worth of projects in Chicago have been halted for review.
The Department of Transportation said in a statement that it was committed to conducting the reviews “as fast as possible so reimbursements can move forward. Unfortunately, [Democratic congressional leaders] Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries’ decision to shut down the government has negatively affected the Department’s staffing resources for carrying out this important analysis.”
The statement also accused congressional Democrats of “holding the federal government’s budget hostage” in an attempt to force Republicans to give health care to undocumented immigrants—a claim that has been repeatedly debunked.
The suspensions come as the president has threatened to permanently fire federal employees and permanently cancel government-funded projects favored by Democrats.
“There could be firings, and that’s their fault, and it also could be other things,” Trump told OAN’s Daniel Baldwin earlier this week. “We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut.”
Late Thursday, the president posted a bizarre AI-generated video on his Truth Social account featuring a cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s 1976 hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” featuring a likeness of Trump in dark robes and Vought dressed as a scythe-wielding grim reaper.
“Russ Vought is the reaper. He wields the pen, the funds and the brain,” the song says, never mind the fact that the Constitution grants Congress the power of the purse, not the White House.
Schumer and Jeffries, who are refusing to support a GOP spending bill unless it rolls back Republican cuts to Medicaid and includes measures to prevent health insurance premiums from skyrocketing next year, blasted the funding reviews of the New York projects.
“Donald Trump is once again treating working people as collateral damage in his endless campaign of chaos and revenge,” they said in a joint statement. “Choking off these projects out of spite will damage America’s competitiveness and cost working families dearly.”
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