California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to be our president. Oh, granted, he hasn’t announced yet. However, if you think what he’s doing now is just a really high-profile book tour (for a tome he admittedly can’t read, let alone could have written), you probably need to be disabused of belief in Santa Claus, as well.
The question therefore turns to what Mr. Newsom has done in office. He’s taken a substantial budget surplus and turned it into a ginormous deficit. With that money, he’s solved none of the problems (crime, homelessness, resident flight) that have plagued the state. He’s also taken on a signature infrastructure project, a high-speed rail initiative with legendary cost overruns.
And now, he’s got a $114 million butterfly and cougar bridge that, years after the project was begun, still isn’t helping any butterflies or cougars cross the highway.
The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing was supposed to span the 10-lane U.S. 101 Freeway, and when ground was broken on the project in 2022, Newsom said that in addition to the $54 million the state had committed to the project, officials could “complete the job within another $10 million,” probably.
As Christopher Rufo and Kenneth Schrupp reported in City Journal on Wednesday, that’s decidedly not what happened. And — I know you’ll never believe this — but part of the problem is wokeistas treating the wildlife bridge as a patronage project.
From City Journal:
Nearly four years after the ceremony, the bridge is past due and the project some $21 million over budget. What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”
Pratt, a cougar-sweater-wearing environmental activist who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team, is the program’s public face. She is also a regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. In 2021, the group received a $25 million grant from “Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation” for the bridge that bears the late philanthropist’s name.
That money apparently was not enough. This past January, donning a hard hat and a “#SAVELACOUGARS” jersey, Pratt announced a possible $21 million overage. She effectively blamed President Trump, attributing the multimillion-dollar overrun to “tariffs, inflation, [and] labor problems.”
“There’s no boondoggle,” she said. “Given the times we’re living in,” a potential $21 million overage is “not that bad.”
I’m not saying one picture can sum up a person’s entire essence — but in this case, I’m not not saying it, either:
California wanted to build a $100 million butterfly bridge. This is the woman they put in charge.
“There’s no boondoggle,” she insists. The $21 million cost overrun is “not that bad.” pic.twitter.com/Mpm8YqqK6d
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) March 18, 2026
Anyhow, this is what the bridge looks like right now:
California already spent $114 million on this unfinished wildlife crossing bridge (leading nowhere) pic.twitter.com/sGzJ8fIkMj
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) March 18, 2026
Now, this would be the best time for Gavin Newsom and his surrogates — especially Izzy Gardon — to shut up. Just shut the heck up. Lay low. Let this one go away. Trust me, a $114 million butterfly bridge to nowhere is bad, but it’s probably not going to be the worst thing that gets reported about California this week.
I repeat: Just shut up. That’s all you have to do. That’s literally all you have to do.
We’re talking about them, so guess what? That’s not what they did.
First came a post from Newsom’s press office account saying that “MAGA’s outrage over a project that literally SAVES LIVES tells you everything!”
“This freeway project, grounded in decades of research, restores a critical wildlife corridor and reduces DEADLY collisions on one of the busiest highways in the country — protecting both drivers and animals,” the post read.
MAGA’s outrage over a project that literally SAVES LIVES tells you everything!
This freeway project, grounded in decades of research, restores a critical wildlife corridor and reduces DEADLY collisions on one of the busiest highways in the country — protecting both drivers and… https://t.co/FcBeyHIk6P
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) March 18, 2026
The post added that the timeline was just delayed “largely due to severe weather last year.” I’m guessing he’s referring to the Southern California wildfires… that, you know, California could have prevented.
That strawman argument was bad enough; the point isn’t the necessity of a wildlife bridge for butterflies and cougars as much as it is Newsom overpricing and underdelivering on a key infrastructure project. (The fact that it’s a $100 million-plus butterfly bridge does make it a bit more comical, but that’s secondary to Newsom’s extraordinarily poor record on these things.)
But wait, there’s more! Newsom decided that he was going to own the cons by showing unfinished projects in Florida and Texas — red states!
How is Florida a real place?
How is Texas a real place?
See, we can do it too… https://t.co/MRrjXD80U0 pic.twitter.com/JdNd3nGGkW
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) March 18, 2026
Oh, do you have some ice for those sick burns, Govs. Abbott and DeSantis? Ouch! There’s no way the right can recover from an own like that!
Unless, of course, those projects had already been completed long ago and had been decommissioned. We’re still talking about this, so guess what — again?
The picture on the left is the old Seven Mile Bridge in Key West that was built a century ago and has been decommissioned since its replacement was built in 1980.
Newsom’s moronic staffers think that’s somehow similar to the $100M ‘wildlife bridge’ they’ve failed to build. https://t.co/ewu2m5tC8O
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 18, 2026
This is such a massive own goal.
The bridges in Florida and Texas are decommissioned. Old bridges / causeways that aren’t used.
You just played yourself. https://t.co/66IiooGjn6
— RBe (@RBPundit) March 18, 2026
Mistakes were made.
This would be darkly hilarious enough if this man weren’t just aiming for a 2028 presidential run, but is the de facto frontrunner among the Democrats. If this is the best they have, heaven help us all — butterflies included.
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