Jerome Powell Asked Point Blank If Trump's Pressure Over Renovations Is 'Directly Tied' To Lower Rate Push

Fed Chair Jerome Powell was asked about renovations at the Federal Reserve and pressure from the Trump Administration surrounding the project.

Transcript

00:00Hi. Victoria Guido with Politico. When it comes to the renovations of the Federal Reserve's

00:08headquarters that the administration has been looking into, do you see their interest in that

00:13issue as being directly tied to the President's push to get you to lower interest rates?

00:18Not for me to say. I will say we had a nice visit with the President. It was an honor to host him.

00:25It's not something that happens very often at the Federal Reserve to have the President come over,

00:29let alone to visit a building. But it was a good visit.

00:33Are there any aspects of the project that they've raised that you see as making you reconsider any aspects of the project?

00:41So, you know, we, this project was hatched and conceived almost a decade ago now.

00:46And we went through the very long process of clearing it through historic preservation at the National Capital Planning Commission.

00:54And a lot of back and forth there was very constructive. We started out to do the work.

00:59work. And we're very well along on that work. And I was quite pleased to have the President say multiple times

01:07that what he really wanted to see was us getting this construction completed as soon as possible.

01:13That is our focus. And that's what we're going to do.