President’s remarks from the Kennedy Center focus on mismanagement of a multi-billion-dollar project, including a basement built near the Potomac River.
President Donald Trump escalated his public dispute with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday, moving beyond threats of a lawsuit to deliver a detailed, and at times colorful, critique of the central bank’s multi-billion-dollar building renovation.
Speaking from the Kennedy Center, Trump claimed the project was “grossly incompetent” and accused Powell of mismanagement, while also renewing his criticism of the Fed’s interest rate policy.
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Trump’s remarks focused heavily on the construction of a new basement at the Fed’s headquarters.
“The building is right next to a thing called the Potomac River,” he said. “The water is right under the building. And they decide to build a basement.” The president claimed this required the use of “the biggest pumps that God ever created” and was a waste of resources, arguing that a basement is the “least valuable” part of a building.
The president also attacked the overall cost of the project, alleging it should have been a “25 million dollar” fix-up, but instead has a price tag of over three billion dollars. He accused the Fed of taking down ceilings to fix “a little piece of flake of paint” and replacing them with expensive “protective material” and “hardened sheetrock” that was unnecessary.
He also claimed the renovation could have been accomplished for a fraction of the cost by simply using “the most magnificent silk” or wallpaper.
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The President’s comments linked his disapproval of the building project with his long-standing criticism of Powell’s monetary policy.
“Not quite as incompetent as his decision not to do interest rates,” Trump said, arguing that every point of interest rates costs the country “$360 billion dollars a year.” He added that he believes rates should be three or four points lower.
This latest broadside comes as the president’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed on Tuesday that Trump was considering a “major lawsuit” against Powell over the building renovations.
The potential legal action and Trump’s new public remarks suggest a new and intense phase in the president’s efforts to exert influence over the historically independent central bank. Trump has given Powell the new nickname “Jerome Too Late Powell,” a moniker he said will “live with him forever.”
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Despite the president’s sharp words, he reiterated that the U.S. economy is “powering through it” and is “the greatest economy maybe we’ve ever had,” but the housing sector is suffering due to high mortgage rates. Trump concluded by stating he would be naming a new Fed chairman “a little bit earlier” than expected, and is considering a few “good, all great” names for the position.
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