Trump Says ‘I’ll Be Watching’ After Sparring With Powell Over Fed Renovation Costs, Central Bank Chief Claps Back Publicly

President Donald Trump returned from a rare visit to the Federal Reserve headquarters on Thursday with concerns about the viability and cost overruns of an ongoing renovation. 

While providing a brief update on his visit on his Truth Social account, he also renewed calls for rate cuts. “It was a Great Honor to tour the Renovation (and some new Construction!) of the Federal Reserve Building with Chairman Jerome Powell, Senator Tim Scott, and others,” he said. 

Trump also said it would have been better if what he claimed in a previous post as a “$3.1 billion, plus, construction project” hadn’t been started. “But it is what it is and, hopefully, it will be finished ASAP,” he said, adding that the cost overruns were “substantial.”

“Even the cost of this building! I’ll be watching and, hopefully, adding some expertise.”

Taking a dig at the Eccles Building project, which involved the renovation of two buildings, the president said the total construction cost of the Pennsylvania Avenue old post office renovation project he successfully undertook was only a small fraction of the Fed’s building cost, despite the former being many times the latter’s size.

“With all of that being said, let’s just get it finished and, even more importantly, LOWER INTEREST RATES!” he concluded the post.

Ahead of Trump’s visit to the project site, the S&P 500 Index closed at a fresh high. The Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index, and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) have gained 10.8% and 8.9%, respectively, this year.

The SPY and QQQ were among the top ten active tickers on Stocktwits late Thursday night, with the retail sentiment at ‘neutral’ and ‘bullish,’ respectively.

A New York Times report stated that when Trump mentioned the $3.1 billion figure during his tour and pulled out a document detailing the costs, stating it had just been released, Powell fact-checked him in real time.

Taking the paper in his hand, Powell scanned it and said, “You just added in a third building.” When the president countered him, the Fed chair said, “No, it was built five years ago.”

Even as Trump maintained his stance, Powell didn’t back off, saying, “It’s not new.”

Trump has come out hard on Powell since he assumed office earlier this year, with his rate cut rhetoric gaining momentum after the economy began to show signs of softness amid his April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.

The central bank chief has resisted calls for rate cuts, citing the uncertainty around how the tariffs will play out. The next rate-setting meeting has been scheduled for July 29-30, with the odds of a cut at merely 2.6%, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

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