TOKYO -- The year is 2022, and a high-speed railway linking the U.S. cities of Dallas and Houston is finally complete. Sleek, comfortable cars familiar to anyone who has ridden Japan's Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line from Tokyo to Osaka will now glide across the Texas plains. Attending the opening ceremony is President Donald Trump, well into his second term. He effuses on the grand achievement: "The shinkansen will make America great again!"
This may be wishful thinking for some in Tokyo. But during the 2016 presidential campaign, the real Donald Trump vowed to invest $1 trillion in American infrastructure upgrades during his first 100 days in office. Since his victory, his transition team has proposed $550 billion in spending on highways, bridges, tunnels, railroads and other projects.
