Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell Bicker Over Cost of Building

TIME

President Donald Trump strode through the Federal Reserve’s construction site on Thursday, wearing a white hard hat as he inspected scaffolding and stacks of plywood. At his side was Jerome Powell, the central bank’s chair whom Trump would love to replace.  The two men stood shoulder to shoulder in front of reporters as Trump claimed the renovation had ballooned to $3.1 billion. Powell closed his eyes and shook his head. “I haven’t heard that from anybody,” he said. The figure, he explained, included a separate project completed years earlier. Trump waved it off, joking that as a real estate developer, he would fire the project manager if they overspent.

Transcript

00:00Well, thank you very much. We're looking at the construction, and we're with the chairman, as you know.

00:11Chairman, come on over. And we're just taking a look at what's happening.

00:15You know, it's a tough construction job. They're building basements where they didn't exist or expanding them,

00:22and a lot of very expensive work. There's no question about it.

00:25So we're taking a look, and it looks like it's about 3.1 billion. It went up a little bit, or a lot.

00:32So the 2.7 is now 3.1.

00:36I'm not aware of that.

00:37Yeah, it just came out.

00:39Yeah, I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed.

00:42Yeah, it just came out.

00:47Our notes had about 3.1 as well.

00:493.1.

00:503.2. This came from us?

00:52Yes. I don't know who does that.

00:55No, you're including the Martin renovation.

00:59That's our entire capital plan.

01:00You just added in a third building is what that is.

01:03That's a third building.

01:04It's a building that's being built.

01:06No, it was built five years ago.

01:08We finished Martin five years ago.

01:10It's part of the overall work.

01:12But it's not new.

01:14So we're going to take a look.

01:16We're going to see what's happening, and it's got a long way.

01:20Do you expect any more additional cross-sell runs?

01:24Don't expect them.

01:25We're ready for them.

01:26But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use.

01:29But no, we don't.

01:30We expect to be finished in 2027.

01:33We're well along, as you can see.

01:35Nice to take these off every once in a while, when we're not under too much danger.

01:42So, any questions?

01:43Mr. President, as a real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget?

01:50Generally speaking, what would I do?

01:54I'd fire them.

01:55Do you think it's a human?

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