Donald Trump showed up at the Fed’s construction site waving a paper and claiming the renovation had jumped to $3.1 billion. “It went up a little bit or a lot,” he said, hoping to catch Jerome Powell off guard. But Powell wasn’t having it.
He calmly replied, “I haven’t heard that from anybody,” and asked Trump if the paper he was reading from came from the Fed. Trump handed it over. Powell pulled out his glasses, looked down at the paper, and quickly caught the mistake.
“You just added a third building,” Powell told him.
Trump tried to defend himself, claiming the building was “being built.” But Powell corrected him again. The building in question had already been finished five years ago. “We finished Martin five years ago,” he said, referring to the William Martin Jr. building, named after a former Fed chair. It wasn’t even part of the renovation Trump was complaining about.
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Trump and his allies have been using the renovation to attack Powell and the Fed, calling it wasteful and out of control. They claim the expensive project proves the Fed has lost its way. But this isn’t really about the money. Trump has been angry at Powell for refusing to lower interest rates on command.
Trump once called Powell a “stupid person.” He’s even considered firing him, but the law only allows a president to remove the Fed chair “for cause.” And Powell still has time left on his term, which Joe Biden extended after reappointing him in 2021.
After getting corrected in public, Trump changed his tone. He told reporters the tour was “very good” and seemed more impressed than angry. He said the basement part of the project was especially complicated because it was being built below the Washington, D.C. water table.
“They have to build a reverse, what’s called a reverse bathtub,” Trump said, describing how water had to be kept out. He even admitted, “In many ways it’s too bad it started, but it did start.”
On Truth Social, he kept up the softer tone. He wrote that it was a “great honor” to tour the building, and although he still called the project too expensive, he added, “It is what it is,” and said he hopes it gets finished quickly.
But he couldn’t help making it about himself. Trump compared the Fed’s cost to one of his own past projects — his renovation of the Old Post Office building in D.C., which he turned into a hotel. He bragged that his project was bigger and cheaper, then ended the post with one more jab: “LOWER INTEREST RATES!”
Featured image via Screengrab
