\n<\/p>\n
The White House is pushing for an inspection of the US Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington after Donald Trump suggested the central bank had mismanaged funds for building renovations.<\/p>\n
The scrutiny comes as Trump has unsuccessfully tried to pressure the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, to quit and demanded he and other officials lower interest rates. Powell has said that lowering rates prematurely could lead to higher inflation, and that Trump\u2019s tariffs had contributed to price increases.<\/p>\n
In response to the Fed chair\u2019s resistance, Trump has threatened to fire Powell multiple times.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, after reports that Trump floated the idea of firing Powell to House Republicans, Trump said: \u201cI don\u2019t rule out anything, but I think it\u2019s highly unlikely unless he has to leave for fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House budget director, Russell Vought, told reporters on Thursday that the administration wanted to have an on-site inspection of the Fed\u2019s troubled $2.5bn building renovations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the president was pretty clear yesterday: he\u2019s unlikely to fire the chairman, but he has substantial concerns with regard to how he\u2019s managed the Fed,\u201d Vought said.<\/p>\n
Trump faces many challenges to his desire to oust Powell. The supreme court in the spring went out of its way to say that, while Trump has the ability to fire certain officials, like those on national labor boards, the Fed is different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Federal Reserve is a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States,\u201d the court said in May.<\/p>\n
Should Trump fire Powell, he is probably setting himself up for a complicated battle with the supreme court.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Wall Street investors appear opposed to Trump firing Powell. US stocks dipped down on Wednesday afternoon directly after reports that Trump was once again floating the idea of firing Powell.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe independence of the Fed is absolutely critical,\u201d the JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, said on Tuesday. \u201cNot just for the current Fed chairman, who I respect, but for the next Fed chairman.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Powell\u2019s term is set to end in May 2026, and Trump appears to be hopeful that recent renovations at the Fed make Powell an easier target. Renovations were initially slated to cost $1.9bn after it was budgeted in 2019, but costs have risen to $2.5bn. The Fed has said the renovations cover two buildings that have \u201cnot been comprehensively renovated since their construction in the 1930s\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Trump said that \u201cit\u2019s possible there\u2019s fraud involved with the $2.5bn\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump also said that Powell was a \u201cterrible Fed chair\u201d and that he \u201cwas surprised he was appointed\u201d. Trump appointed Powell to the job in 2018. Biden extended Powell\u2019s term in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The White House is pushing for an inspection of the US Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington after Donald Trump suggested the central bank had mismanaged funds for building renovations. The scrutiny comes as Trump has unsuccessfully tried to pressure the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, to quit and demanded he and other officials lower interest rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1069,4437,319,671,4422,4784,4439,4785,517,2184,81,2168],"class_list":{"0":"post-11416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-building","9":"tag-fed","10":"tag-federal","11":"tag-house","12":"tag-inspection","13":"tag-piles","14":"tag-powell","15":"tag-pressure","16":"tag-reserve","17":"tag-seeks","18":"tag-trump","19":"tag-white"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}