Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell appeared surprised on Thursday as President Donald Trump showed him a document showing costs for the Fed’s building project were higher than previously reported.
Powell shook his head when Trump surprised him with comments about a cost estimate of $3.1 billion, which is significantly higher than previous estimates of $2.5 billion for the renovation of the agency’s headquarters published in media reports. Trump started off the encounter by describing some of the work going on.
“We’re just taking a look at what is happening, it’s a construction job here, building basements where they have not existed or expanding them, it’s a lot of very expensive work, no question about it. And [Republican Sen.] Tim [Scott of South Carolina] has been with me for a long time and you’re in charge of that committee.”
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“Indeed. The reason we wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses. We wanted to figure out, why?” Scott said, with Trump adding, “So, we are taking a look, it looks it gets to about 3.1 billion, it went up a little bit, or a lot. The 2.7 is now 3.1. It just came out.”
Issues with the renovations led Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida to refer Powell to the Justice Department over perjury allegations. Powell appeared to be taken aback when Trump mentioned the new figure.
“I’m not aware of that, I have not heard that from anybody,” an apparently stunned Powell said, putting on a pair of glasses to review a document from the Federal Reserve that Trump pulled from his jacket as Scott confirmed the $3.1 billion figure.
Powell explained that the $3.1 billion included “the Martin renovation,” which he described as “a third building.”
Trump and Powell have reportedly clashed over the Fed’s failure to lower interest rates. After Trump offered to take questions from reporters, he was asked how he would have dealt with a person running a project with significant cost overruns when he was a real estate developer.
“Generally speaking, what would I do? I would fire him,” Trump responded.
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