The Federal Reserve building's ongoing renovations are reportedly behind schedule and over budget, and President Donald Trump isn't happy about it. Granted, this was the president's business before he went into reality TV and then politics, so he knows a thing or two about building. But this case has clearly gotten under his skin, and on Monday, he had some sharp words for Fed Chair Jerome Powell and those ongoing renovations.
President Donald Trump on Monday launched a renewed attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, accusing Powell of "gross incompetence" and threatening to sue him over the costly renovation of the central bank's headquarters.
Trump spoke at a Mar-a-Lago press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and slammed Fed Chair Powell as a "fool." Powell, who was appointed as Fed chair by Trump in 2017 and was reappointed by then-President Joe Biden in 2021, will see his term as chair expire in May.
In my previous career, I did a fair amount of hiring and firing. Sometimes you make a hiring decision you regret later, which is where the "firing" part usually comes in. But in the case of a Fed chair, it's a little more complicated than that.
The president defended his project to build a ballroom at the White House and contrasted it with the Fed's renovation, saying that, "We're under budget and ahead of schedule, and they've wanted it for 150 years. Think of it. The Federal Reserve building, two buildings, they don't know what they're doing. They're way over budget. I mean, most of this was built during the Biden administration."
"'Too late' Powell, 'too late,' because he's always too late with interest rates, except before the election, it was too early because that was supposed to help her get elected. It had no impact, we won all seven swing states," Trump said.
Let's be honest, there was probably nothing the Fed or Chairman Powell could have done to tip the 2024 presidential election the other way; the Democrats had a terrible field, and they unerringly chose the very worst candidate, who then went on to choose the very worst possible running mate. But the bad blood between Trump and Powell goes back a ways.
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Back to the renovation — now the president is playing the lawsuit card:
"We're thinking of bringing a suit against Powell for incompetence, because think of it, these are two – these aren't outstanding buildings, these are small buildings. It's going to end up costing more than $4 billion, $4 billion. It's the highest price of construction, again Democrats, highest price of construction per square foot in the history of the world," Trump claimed.
It's not clear what the administration could gain with a lawsuit. Could they take over the renovation project and manage it directly? Could they have the whole thing called off? Work is already ongoing, so that doesn't seem likely.
Chairman Powell's term as chair ends in May 2026. He will remain on the Board of Governors until January 2028, unless he resigns. Pursuant to the Federal Reserve Act, a president can't fire a Fed chair unless it's "for cause," and it seems likely that a slow-going renovation project doesn't rise to that level.
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