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Donald Trump sparred with the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, on Thursday during a rare presidential visit to the central bank\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n
Trump was continuing his campaign to pressure the Fed to cut interest rates and was visiting its Washington headquarters to view costly renovations he has suggested are tantamount to fraud.<\/p>\n
Having branded Powell a \u201cnumbskull\u201d for the Fed\u2019s recent decisions not to cut rates, Trump has turned up the pressure on Powell with criticism of the $2.5bn bill for renovating the Fed\u2019s historical buildings.<\/p>\n
Powell and Trump stood in hard hats inside the Fed\u2019s construction site. Urging the Fed chair to stand closer to him, Trump alleged that the bill for the renovations would now cost $3.1bn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like it\u2019s about $3.1bn \u2013 it went up a little bit or a lot,\u201d said Trump. The usually unflappable Powell looked visibly irritated, closed his eyes and shook his head. \u201cI am not aware of that,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n
Handed a piece of paper by Trump, Powell scanned it and said the new figure included the cost of renovations for the Martin Building, a different Fed office that was renovated five years ago. \u201cIt\u2019s not new,\u201d said Powell.<\/p>\n
Asked by a reporter what he would do if a project manager went over budget, Trump said: \u201cI\u2019d fire him.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, I would love to see it completed,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to put that in this category.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS\/Android) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n See our guide at theguardian.com\/tips\u00a0for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n The president backed away from earlier statements in which he had suggested he would fire Powell, a suggestion that has rattled stock markets. Trump said: \u201cTo do that is a big move, and I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessary, and I believe he\u2019s going to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n The visit to the Fed comes less than a week before the central bank\u2019s 19 policymakers gather for a two-day rate-setting meeting, where they are widely expected to leave the central bank\u2019s benchmark interest rate in the 4.25%-4.50% range.<\/p>\n Trump has demanded that the Fed lower rates by three percentage points. Trump has repeatedly demanded that Powell slash US interest rates and has frequently raised the possibility of firing him.<\/p>\n Ahead of Trump\u2019s visit, Fed staff escorted a small group of reporters around the construction sites. They wove around cement mixers and construction machines, and spoke over the sound of drills, banging and saws.<\/p>\n Fed staff pointed out security features, including blast-resistant windows, that they said were a significant driver of costs, in addition to tariffs and escalations in material and labor costs.<\/p>\n Reuters contributed to this story<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump sparred with the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, on Thursday during a rare presidential visit to the central bank\u2019s headquarters. Trump was continuing his campaign to pressure the Fed to cut interest rates and was visiting its Washington headquarters to view costly renovations he has suggested are tantamount to fraud. Having branded Powell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[319,4438,4439,485,517,81,5789,1774],"class_list":{"0":"post-12224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-federal","9":"tag-jerome","10":"tag-powell","11":"tag-rare","12":"tag-reserve","13":"tag-trump","14":"tag-tussles","15":"tag-visit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12224","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=12224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Contact us about this story<\/h4>\n