NEWARK - Donald Trump told Mikie Sherrill that he "knows the region well."

The governor said she responded:

"Then, you know how important this is." (This being the Gateway Tunnel).

What did the president say to that?

"He said he knows how important it is," Sherrill related.

This does not exactly sound like Shakespearean dialogue, but it has to do.

Sherrill spoke of her conversation with the president last week at a Wednesday press conference highlighting the fact New Jersey and New York have filed suit against the Trump Administration for "illegally" withholding $15 billion that Congress already has appropriated for the tunnel.
Jennifer Davenport, the Acting Attorney General, who co-hosted today's press event at Penn Station, said the litigation was rather "straightforward."  In short, a breach of contract accusation.

Trump "terminated" the tunnel last fall, but work continued with money on hand. Sherrill recently visited a construction site in North Bergen.

The money, however, runs out at the end of the week.

The suit filed by New Jersey and New York is similar, but distinct from one filed earlier by the Gateway Development Commission.

Few would question that the president - a native New Yorker who owns a golf club in Bedminster - knows the region.

But this is about politics, not geography.

Sherrill was asked if the administration simply wants to hurt Democratic-leaning states.

"It's definitely part of a broader political attack," she said.

During the press conference, Davenport said of the suit, which was filed in the southern district of Federal Court in New York.
“The president’s decision to freeze funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project jeopardizes safe and reliable infrastructure and puts thousands of jobs at risk. The federal government has left us no choice: we must challenge this illegal action in court, and demand emergency relief that will protect us from these unlawful harms.”