I’ve been doing a lot of research on the explosive fraud in California, but with all the other news, I really haven’t gotten around to writing about it. Besides, Beege did a bang-up job with a piece yesterday, so I can take a breather until things settle down.
With that said, the fraud is hardly the most Gavin Newsom thing there is. Even a dolt like Tim Walz or a harridan like Janet Mills of Maine can run a fraud operation, and the uniqueness of Newsom’s version is more about scale than kind.
No, what makes Newsom truly special is his talent for creating the most absurd, expensive, and totally useless projects and managing to squeeze hundreds of millions or billions of dollars out of them, funneling the money to his buddies.
EXCLUSIVE: Gavin Newsom promised to build a bridge for cougars and butterflies in the middle of Los Angeles. The project has turned into another boondoggle, with broken deadlines and costs exploding to $114 million.
This is Newsom’s bridge to nowhere.https://t.co/xgdc3R5lwB
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) March 18, 2026
It’s a real talent.
It’s not that other politicians can’t push through absurd wastes of money, but Newsom does it with flair and an utter shamelessness that is, weirdly, almost a pleasure to behold. He’s like a hypnotist who gets audience members to cluck like chickens, or a mentalist who convinces them he can read minds. But for the fact that people are being harmed and ripped off, it could make a good television show.
n 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC), a project featuring an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California. At the ceremony, Newsom boasted that the state had committed $54 million. He promised to “complete the job within another $10 million,” before seeming to hedge on whether that final sum would do the trick. Officials projected a 2025 completion date for the overpass, and estimated that the entire project—which includes the bridge and other ancillary developments—would cost $92 million, some of it coming from private philanthropists.
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.”
Now I like L.A. cougars as much as the next guy. I hear they are hot to trot, and if it takes a wildlife bridge to make them happy, I can see the attraction for Governor Newsom, who has an eye for the ladies.
So why does this bridge for the, wait for it…dozen cougars in the area cost over a hundred million dollars?
California’s unfinished wildlife ‘bridge to nowhere’ tops $100M https://t.co/8tEFDT899u pic.twitter.com/AfcpvICm2c
— NY Post Opinion (@NYPostOpinion) March 18, 2026
Well, in addition to feeding the mountain lions, you have to feed the ‘experts” and NGOs.
Why has a project primarily consisting of a bridge for animals cost over $100 million? One reason is that Newsom and WAWC’s philanthropic supporters apparently don’t mind it becoming a patronage program. As the WAWC-endorsing Wildlife Crossing Fund notes, citing the California Department of Transportation’s estimate, “for every $1 billion spent” on wildlife crossings, “13,000 jobs are created.”
Some of these jobs are absurd. The National Wildlife Federation’s WAWC website claims that “[o]ur Native Plant Nursery”—apparently funded by the nonprofit SAMO Fund and other “partners”—“has prioritized hiring Indigenous team members to help steward the plants that will vegetate the bridge.” The nursery’s co-manager said she makes an “offering” after collecting seeds, sometimes including pieces of her hair.
Or consider the ways one of the nursery workers and her associates have spent their time. The nursery’s founding manager worked with “helpers and volunteers” to “seed scout[]” across the Santa Monica Mountains. Her associates on the “design team” received “feedback from all the various project partners”—including state and federal bureaucrats—for their plant list.
A group of experts apparently adds to the operation’s expense. A fungi whiz, Pratt says, worked as a WAWC habitat designer, periodically scrutinizing root samples under a microscope. A contracted soil scientist said his process involves assessing local dirt to “rebuild it . . . as close to nature as possible.”
One reason California supposedly needs this overpass is to ensure the safety and genetic diversity of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains, where only about a dozen non-kitten cougars live at any given time. While bridge proponents claim that the local mountain lion population could otherwise face extinction, researchers suggest the bridge is not the only solution to ensure their survival.
A dozen cougars, and apparently butterflies, are the target to be saved by this bridge to nowhere.
Beth Pratt is the left-wing activist in charge of building Gavin Newsom’s $114 million cougar and butterfly bridge. She’s turned the bridge into a boondoggle, and now blames Trump for blown deadlines and increased costs. Her bio does not note any previous construction experience. pic.twitter.com/eepoIW4vhd
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) March 18, 2026
Or not. A thousand NGOs and experts are being fed off this project, and that’s about it.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Newsom envisioned WAWC as a catalyst for the construction of wildlife crossings across the state. California, he boasted, set aside $105 million “to replicate projects like this all up and down the state.” Pratt reportedly thinks “hundreds more crossings are needed.”
Hundreds more wildlife crossings, at over a hundred million a pop. That’s a lot of “experts” and nonprofits being fed for sure. It would amount to tens of billions of dollars, all flowing into the pockets of people collecting seeds, monitoring roots, holding public meetings, and planning budget overruns. Think of the indigenous people we can help!
Newsom-linked NGO, The Nature Conservancy, received a $2.7M taxpayer grant for Point Reyes rewilding, but only $78K goes to the project, with the rest spent on wages, planning, and indirect expenses. pic.twitter.com/c4Nz8gCupG
— Sebastian™ (@Azariel91) September 1, 2025
Lifetime sinecures for otherwise useless people.
Gavin Newsom is spending $100 million on a butterfly bridge, funneling cash to left-wing activists who spent months “roaming the Santa Monica mountains” in “sacred solitude,” collecting seeds and berries.
This is how they’re spending your money. pic.twitter.com/Ro2V8Fkg5F
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) March 18, 2026
The most Gavin Newsom thing ever.
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