President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell bickered over the cost of renovations to the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. in front of cameras as the two toured the site on Thursday.
The squabble comes amidst Trump and Powell’s ongoing feud, which has mostly consisted of the former lambasting the latter over his job performance, and in particular his reticence to lower interest rates.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Trump would fire Powell in short order. Trump denied as much, but didn’t let the opportunity to insult his own appointee pass.
“He is doing a lousy job. I’m not talking about that. Fortunately, we get to make a change in the next what, eight months or so. And we’ll pick somebody that’s good,” said Trump in mid-July before deeming the chair a “knucklehead.”
The painfully awkward exchange between the two began with Trump telling reporters: “We’re just taking a look at what’s happening. And it’s a tough construction job. They’re building basements where they didn’t exist, or expanding them. And a lot of very expensive work, there’s no question about it. And Tim [Scott] has been with me for a long time, and you’re in charge of the committee.”
Here’s how things went from there:
SCOTT: Indeed, one of the reasons I wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses. Wanted to figure out why.
TRUMP: Yeah, so we’re taking a look and it looks like it’s about 3.1 billion. It went up a little bit — or a lot — so the 2.7 is now 3.1, and-
POWELL: I’m not aware of that.
TRUMP: Yeah, it just came out.
POWELL: Yeah, I haven’t heard that from anybody at the Fed.
TRUMP: It just came out.
SCOTT: I just heard that about 3.1 as well. 3.1 or 3.2.
POWELL: This came from us?
TRUMP: Yes, I don’t know who does that.
POWELL: You’re including the Martin renovation. You just added-, no, you just added in a third building. That’s what that is. That’s a third building-
TRUMP: It’s a building that’s being built.
POWELL: No, it’s been-, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago.
TRUMP: It’s part of the overall work. So-
POWELL: It’s not new.
TRUMP: So we’re gonna take a look, we’re going to see what’s happening, and it’s got a long way. Do you expect any more additional cost overruns?
POWELL: Don’t expect them, we’re ready for them. But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don’t. Expect to be finished in 2027. We’re well along, as you can see.
Watch above via Fox News.
