Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has slammed Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), as well as the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in California, amid illegal commercial driver’s license (CDL) row.
Sharing an article that said the DMV was extending the deadline for CDL cancellations following a lawsuit by rights groups, Duffy refuted the claims in a post on the social media platform X on Tuesday.
“Gavin Newsom is lying. The deadline to revoke illegally issued, unvetted foreign trucker licenses is still January 5,” Duffy said in the post. He added that the state has not been granted an extension to “keep breaking the law” and put Americans at risk. He also threatened to go ahead with the withdrawal of federal funding of over $160 million if the state misses the deadline.
The Fox26 News article, published on Tuesday, which Duffy shared, claims that the licenses, which were set to terminate on Jan. 5, 2026, would now last until March 6, 2026, following a class action lawsuit. In California, the article states that approximately 17,000 truck drivers face CDL cancellations.
This isn’t the first time that the Transport Secretary has threatened to withdraw funding from California. Earlier, Duffy had threatened to withdraw $160 million in federal funding from California, drawing criticism from Newsom. Duffy’s latest comments could deepen the feud between the pair.
The Illegal CDL Row
Duffy has faced off against other Democratic lawmakers in the past over the illegal CDL row. Earlier this month, Duffy slammed Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and threatened to withdraw over $30 million in federal funding from the state of Minnesota for illegally issuing CDLs to undocumented drivers.
The row came to light following an undocumented foreign driver, Harjinder Singh, making an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway, which resulted in three fatalities. Singh was issued his CDL in California.
Sean Duffy And Gavin Newsom Face Off On High-Speed Rail Project
Duffy had earlier hailed a decision by a California court that dismissed a lawsuit against the President Donald Trump administration for withdrawing $4 billion in funding for a high-speed rail project connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco.
On the other hand, Newsom shared that the project was already in its track-laying phase despite the withdrawal of funds from the White House. He also touted that the project had regularly passed financial audits of its accounts.
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