President Donald Trump put Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the spot about the cost of renovations to the Fed’s Washington headquarters building going over budget.
“We’re taking a look, and it looks like it’s about $3.1 billion. Went up a little bit—or a lot,” Trump said. “So, the 2.7 is now 3.1. It just came out.”
Powell pushed back, saying he hadn’t “heard that from anybody.” The Federal Reserve chairman, who Trump has repeatedly threatened to fire for refusing to lower interest rates, said the number was so high because Trump included a third building finished five years ago.
“We’re going to take a look,” Trump said. “We’re going to see what’s happening, and it’s got a long way [to go].”
Trump asked Powell if he expected to go over budget any further.
“Do you expect any more additional cost overruns?” Trump asked.
“Don’t expect ’em. We’re ready for ’em. But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don’t,” Powell said. “We expect to be finished in 2027.”
A reporter later asked Trump if his visit to the Fed was intended to pressure Powell—who the president often refers to as “too late”—to resign.
“No, there’s no pressure … I think he’s going to do the right thing,” Trump said. “Everybody knows what the right thing is. Even people that believed in the higher [interest] rates, they all want to see the interest rates come down.”
The post Trump Holds Fed Chief’s Feet to Fire on HQ Construction Cost Overruns appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, http://dailysignal.com/ and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
