Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and President Donald Trump disagreed on the current cost of a controversial renovation at the central bank during the president’s visit to the site Thursday.
“We're taking a look, and it looks like it's about $3.1 billion,” Trump said. “Went up a little bit, or a lot. So 2.7 [billion dollars] is now 3.1 [billion dollars].”
“I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed,” Powell said, before looking at the document Trump was referring to and clarifying that that number included renovations of a separate building five years ago.
“It’s part of the overall work,” Trump said.
“It’s not new,” said Powell.
Trump’s visit, alongside Senate Banking Committee Chair Tim Scott, R-SC, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, marked the first time a president had visited the Fed in 19 years. The visit comes amid controversy that Powell had “grossly mismanaged the Fed,” according to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, in part by overrunning the budget for building renovations.
Vought’s allegations have turned into chatter about the possibility that Trump could fire the Fed chair – something the president allegedly floated last week, then publicly dismissed. Trump has called Powell “a numbskull” and “‘Too Late’ Powell” on social media, mostly over the Fed chair’s reluctance to lower interest rates. But he kept similar accusations at bay during Thursday’s tour.
“I don't want to be personal,” Trump said. “I just would like to see it get finished. And in many ways, it's too bad it started, but it did start, and it's been under construction for a long time. It's going to be a real long time, because it looks like it's got a long way to go.”
He then emphasized the need for lower interest rates.
“We want to get the rates down and want to get the Fed building finished. So, I met with the contractors, and we toured it with the chairman and we had a very good tour, and we’ll talk to you about it sometime, and Tim [Scott] and I — we sort of understand what happened,” he said, according to The Hill.
Following the tour, Trump took to Truth Social to say that, although the “cost overruns are substantial … our Country is doing very well and can afford just about anything — Even the cost of this building!”
Trump concluded his post with bids to “just get it finished and, even more importantly, LOWER INTEREST RATES!”
The Fed began raising interest rates in March 2022 to combat inflation. Rates were raised 11 times through mid-2024. During remarks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual policy forum last August, however, Powell said “the time has come for policy to adjust.”
Since then, rates have been lowered three times – in September, November and December of last year – by a total of 100 basis points.
“The Federal Reserve was honored to welcome the President yesterday for a visit to our historic headquarters,” a Fed spokesperson told Banking Dive via email. “We appreciated the opportunity to share progress on the renovation with him and with Senators Tim Scott and Thom Tillis. We are grateful for the President’s encouragement to complete this important project.
“We remain committed to continuing to be careful stewards of these resources as we see the project through to completion,” the spokesperson said.
