U.S. President Donald Trump was put in his place by the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, on Thursday after he misquoted the cost of renovations during a visit to its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
Trump, standing alongside Powell in a matching hard hat, told reporters that construction costs for the building had gone up by almost half a billion dollars, from US$2.7 billion to $3.1 billion, leading Powell to shake his head in disapproval before saying, “I am not aware of that.”
Trump was adamant that his estimations were correct. “It just came out,” he said to Powell as he pulled a folded sheet of paper from the breast pocket of his suit.
Powell probed further, asking the president where he obtained those numbers, as they had not been provided by the central bank.
Trump handed Powell the paper, which he swiftly pored over before noting that in the cost report, the president had included a budget to fix up a third central bank office that had already been renovated.
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“That was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago,” Powell said.
The president then asked Powell if he anticipated any additional costs on the current project.
“We don’t expect them,” he said, adding that if additional costs were to occur, there is a reserve fund that the bank “may use.”
On Friday, ahead of a flight to Scotland on Air Force One, Trump spoke briefly about his meeting with Powell.
“I think that Jerome Powell… I think we had a very good meeting. Forgetting about the building, that’s out of control,” he said, before making more general remarks on the U.S economy and interest rates.
Earlier this month, Trump blamed the use of marble finishes inside the Federal Reserve building for the renovation’s hefty price tag and argued it was grounds to fire Powell.
According to The Associated Press, the use of marble in the building is in part a result of Trump’s ordered policy.
As the department moved ahead with plans to renovate its Great Depression-era headquarters in Washington during Trump’s first term, it faced concerns in 2020 during a vetting process involving Trump appointees, who called for more “white Georgia marble” for the facade of the building.
The building’s architects said the central bank wanted glass walls to reflect it as a transparent institution, but three Trump appointees to a local commission felt marble best fit the building’s historic character.
While most of the proposed glass exterior was kept, some marble was added as a result, according to the minutes of the Commission of Fine Arts, which advises the federal government on architecture.
The marble does not explain the roughly $600 million in cost overruns for the project, now budgeted to cost $2.5 billion, which also includes the addition of an underground parking garage and new glass atria in the building’s courtyards. But the roots of its extensive use muddy the White House’s attempts to use the renovation to paint the central banker as a profligate spender as a possible pretext to remove him.
— With files from The Associated Press
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