Gavin Newsom walked onto Bill Maher's set expecting a friendly crowd and an easy hour.
Instead he walked into the hot seat.
What Maher called out to his face – and what Newsom said next – is the clip every Republican in America just bookmarked.
California High-Speed Rail Boondoggle Hits $231 Billion and Newsom Still Has No Answer
Democrats have covered for Gavin Newsom's California record for eight straight years.
That cover broke on Bill Maher’s HBO show.
Newsom came on Real Time to sell his memoir and warm up his expected 2028 presidential campaign.
Maher let him brag for a minute.
"Good! Fourth largest economy. Let's go!" Newsom fired back when Maher raised what Republicans would say about California.
Then Maher hit him.
"Are they going to say good about gas prices? Are they going to say good about how high their rents are? So many people live – I mean there's a whole litany."
He paused.
"I mean the train! Gavin, you got to get rid of the train! I say this as a friend, you got to let that train go! Let the train go. It's up to $231 billion."
Maher has been rooting for Newsom for years.
He's encouraged him to run for president.
The disaster got so large, so documented, so impossible to spin that even a supporter who wants Newsom in the White House couldn't sit across from him and keep quiet.
Here's what that $231 billion actually means.
California voters approved the train in 2008 with a straightforward promise: $33 billion, LA to San Francisco, done by 2020.
Sixteen years later, no high-speed track has been laid anywhere in the state.
The only construction happening is a Central Valley stretch connecting Merced to Bakersfield – two cities most Californians never need to travel between.
Phase one won't open until the late 2030s if it ever happens at all.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy pulled $4 billion in federal funding last year and said what every honest person already knew.
"After 16 years and roughly $15 billion spent, not one high speed track has been laid. It's time for this boondoggle to die."
State Sen. Tony Strickland called it "the most wasteful government project in probably world history."
Rep. Kevin Kiley labeled it "the worst public infrastructure failure in U.S. history."
Newsom Blamed Three Other Governors for His Own Train to Nowhere
Newsom's response on Real Time was to push back on the $231 billion figure, then pivot immediately to blame.
"It goes back three administrations. I inherited a mess. We put it back on track," he said.
He's been governor for seven years and he kept writing the checks.
The project was approved under Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2008.
It was Newsom himself who quietly buried the original SF-to-LA promise in 2019, publicly admitting there was no realistic path to complete it.
Then he kept spending anyway.
The 2028 Problem Gavin Newsom Cannot Explain Away
The train is actually the easy part of Newsom's California record.
Maher also hit him on gas prices and rent – and every number backs him up.
California leads the nation in unemployment.
It is running a multi-billion dollar budget deficit.
California lost a congressional seat after the 2020 census — and is projected to lose four more after 2030 as residents keep heading for Texas and Nevada.
Newsom's answer to all of it was a single word: Trump.
"He's not doing anything to try to unite this country in any way, shape, or form," Newsom said. "Just the sewer we're now living in because of Donald Trump."
Maher stopped him cold.
"Many people would say you are imitating him. You are the one who kind of imitates his style with the trolling. You are suing Fox now, I understand."
"Fox better look to settle right now or apologize for defamation," Newsom shot back.
Maher didn't blink.
"Okay, but that sounds exactly like what he does. Suing media?"
"Okay, again! But that does sound like him!"
Newsom came to Real Time to boost a presidential campaign.
He left with his own ally on record saying California's signature infrastructure project is indefensible – and that Newsom's communication strategy is a Trump impression.
Newsom's own Democratic operatives told Axios in December that his momentum is "a superficial sugar high" – and that was before any real attacks on his record started.
When the people who want you to win won't defend your record on live television, the problem isn't the attack ads coming in 2027.
It's that Maher just wrote them for free.
Sources:
- Virginia Kruta, "Bill Maher Corners Gavin Newsom Over High-Speed Rail Disaster: 'Let The Train Go,'" The Daily Wire, May 2, 2026.
- "Trump's Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Pulls the Plug on $4B for California High Speed Rail," U.S. Department of Transportation, 2025.
- Tyler Olson, "California High-Speed Rail Project Soars to $231B: 'Worst Public Infrastructure Failure in US History,'" Fox News Business, April 29, 2026.
- "Chairman Comer Investigates California's High-Speed Rail Boondoggle," House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, August 2025.
- "Bill Maher Grills Newsom on California Gas Prices and Rail Project," Fox News, May 2, 2026.
- "Inside the Emerging Push to Knock Newsom Off His Perch as the Dems' 2028 Frontrunner," Axios, December 14, 2025.