Trump and Powell bicker over Fed building renovations as president ratchets up pressure campaign

WASHINGTON AP After months of criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell President Donald Trump took the fight to the Fed s front door on Thursday publicly scorning the central bank chief over the ballooning costs of a long-planned building project Powell pushed back challenging the president s latest price tag as incorrect Wearing hard hats and grim faces standing in the middle of the construction project Trump and Powell addressed the cameras Trump charged that the renovation would cost billion much higher than the Fed s billion figure Powell standing next to him shook his head The Fed Chair after looking at a paper presented to him by Trump announced the president was including the cost of renovating a separate Fed building known as the Martin building that was finished five years ago The visit represented a key ratcheting up of the president s pressure on Powell to lower borrowing costs which Trump says would accelerate economic increase and reduce the establishment s borrowing costs Presidents rarely visit the Fed s offices though they are just a limited blocks from the White House an example of the central bank s independence from day-to-day politics We have to get the interest rates down Trump noted later after a short tour addressing the cameras this time without Powell People are pretty much unable to buy houses Trump is likely to be disappointed next week however when Fed authorities will meet to decide its next moves on interest rates Powell and other executives have signaled they will likely keep their key rate unchanged at about However economists and Wall Street investors expect the Fed may start cutting rates in September Trump did step back a bit from specific of his contemporary threats to fire Powell before his term ends May Petitioned if the rising costs of the Fed s renovation estimated in to cost billion was a fireable offense Trump revealed I don t want to put this in that category To do that is a big move and I don t think that s necessary Trump added I just want to see one thing happen very simple Interest rates come down The Fed allowed reporters to tour the building before the visit by Trump who in his real estate career has bragged about his lavish spending on architectural accoutrements that gave a Versailles-like golden flair to his buildings Journalists get rare tour of Fed renovation On Thursday reporters wound through cement mixers front loaders and plastic pipes as they got a close-up view of the working construction site that encompasses the Fed s historic headquarters known as the Marriner S Eccles building and a second building across th Street in Washington Fed staff who declined to be identified stated that greater precaution requirements rising materials costs and tariffs and the need to comply with historic preservation measures drove up the cost of the project which was budgeted in at billion The staff pointed out new blast-resistant windows and seismic walls that were needed to comply with modern building codes and assurance standards set out by the Department of Homeland Precaution The Fed has to build with the highest level of safety in mind Fed staff disclosed including something called progressive collapse in which only parts of the building would fall if hit with explosives Sensitivity to the president s pending visit among Fed staff was high during the tour Reporters were ushered into a small room outside the Fed s boardroom where executives meet eight times a year to decide whether to change short-term interest rates The room which will have a precaution booth is oval-shaped and someone had written oval office on plywood walls The Fed staff downplayed the inscription as a joke When reporters returned to the room later it had been painted over During the tour Fed staff also exhibited the elevator shaft that congressional critics have mentioned is for VIPs only Powell has since disclosed it will be open to all Fed staff The renovation includes an -inch -cm extension so the elevator reaches a slightly elevated area that is now accessible only by procedures or a ramp A planning document that stated the elevator will only be for the Fed s seven governors was erroneous and later amended staff reported Renovations have been in the works for a while Plans for the renovation were first approved by the Fed s governing board in The project then wended its way through several local commissions for approval at least one of which the Commission for Fine Arts included several Trump appointees The commission pushed for more marble in the second of the two buildings the Fed is renovating known as Constitution Avenue specifically in a mostly glass extension that several of Trump s appointees derided as a glass box Fed staff also mentioned tariffs and inflationary increases in building material prices drove up costs Trump in imposed a duty on steel and on aluminum He increased them this year to Steel prices are up about since the plans were approved while construction materials costs overall are up about according to regime material Fed staff also pointed to the complication of historic renovations both buildings have important preservation demands Constructing a new building on an empty site would have been cheaper they disclosed As one example the staff pointed reporters to where they had excavated beneath the Eccles building to add a floor of mechanical rooms storage space and several offices The Fed staff acknowledged such structural additions underground are expensive but commented it was done to avoid adding HVAC equipment and other mechanics on the roof which is historic The Fed has previously attributed much of the project s cost to underground construction It is also adding three underground levels of parking for its second building Initially the central bank proposed building more above ground but ran into Washington D C s height restrictions forcing more underground construction