WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump rattled off a number to shame Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about the renovation costs of the Fed's headquarters — and America's central banker dared to correct him. Live on video.
The exchange occurred Thursday in the plywood-sheathed headquarters of the Fed that are still under construction. Both men wore white hard hats and dark suits. Trump spoke with utter certainty, while Powell skeptically cocked his eyebrows.
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Trump claimed the renovation project was over budget at a $3.1 billion price tag, while Powell pushed back and said the president was including an extra building that had been renovated five years ago. The Fed has maintained that renovation costs are $2.5 billion, an increase from $1.9 billion.
“It looks like it’s about $3.1 billion, went up a little bit or a lot,” said Trump.
Powell shook his head in disagreement. “I’m not aware of that, Mr. President,” he responded.
“It just came out,” said Trump, pulling a folded piece of paper from his suit coat’s pocket.
“I haven’t heard that from anybody at the Fed,” Powell said.
“It just came out,” Trump repeated.
After some back and forth, Powell put on his glasses, stared at the numbers on the paper from Trump and asked, “This came from us?”
“Yes,” Trump said.
“Are you including the Martin renovation?” Powell said. “You just added in a third building is what that is. That’s a third building.”
“It’s a building that’s being built,” Trump said.
“No, it was built five years ago,” Powell said.
Trump ended his tour afterward by saying he wanted the renovation to be completed and Powell to aggressively cut benchmark interest rates. The Fed chair has refrained from responding to Trump's taunts on social media, saying the Fed can afford to be patient to monitor the impact of the president's tariffs on inflation.
The exchange followed months of criticism by Trump of Powell as being “Too Late” on rate cuts and an accompanying pressure campaign to get the central bank head to step down.
White House deputy chief of staff James Blair later said that Powell was “splitting hairs" on the renovation costs, though in this case it would be a $600 million hair about a building that Trump thought was still under construction.
“There’s no way around it," Blair said. "The cost overrun is massive.”