President Donald Trump said Tuesday an airplane flight costs $2 or “nothing” while proposing travel alternatives to the high-speed rail under construction in California. (Watch the video below.)
“We’re gonna start a big investigation on that because it’s — I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said of the over-budget project. “Nobody has ever seen anything like it. The worst overruns that there have ever been in the history of our country. And it wasn’t even necessary. I would have said, you don’t buy it. You take an airplane — it costs you $2. It costs you nothing.”
While the president was likely exaggerating to make his point, the extent to which he dismissed the high cost of air travel didn’t fly with observers on social media.
“What made up fairy tale world does he live in,” one person wrote on X. “Two dollars to fly. Yeah maybe in the Wright Brothers time.”
“Off by like 2 digits lol,” another chimed in.
The rail, which would eventually link San Francisco and Los Angeles, is now reportedly budgeted at $100 billion more than the $33 billion estimated in 2008 and has become a target for federal fund-slashing. Trump also went after the ambitious project in his first term.
Here are more priceless replies to Trump’s $2 comment: