Trump Insists ‘No Tension’ With Powell After Tour of Fed’s Construction Site

President Donald Trump insisted there was “no tension” between him and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell during an at-times contentious tour of the construction on the central bank’s headquarters Thursday afternoon.

The tour came amid a months-long pressure campaign by the president to cajole Powell into reducing interest rates, a theme he repeatedly visited while speaking with reporters at the site.

Immediately after the tour ended, Trump said: “Very importantly, we have to get interest rates lowered in our country.”

Asked directly why he wasn’t just firing Powell, Trump added, “To do that is a big move. I just don’t think it is necessary.”

“It may be a little too late, as the expression goes, but I believe he’s gonna do the right thing,” Trump said, adding: “I thought we had a good meeting. No, there was no tension.”

Trump does not have the authority to fire Powell without cause, though some of his allies have indicated that the Federal Reserve headquarters’ construction overruns may present an opening.

Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, suggested in a letter posted to X earlier this month that changes made to the renovation plans were made without consulting the planning commission — suggesting Powell may have violated the law as a result.

“Team Trump is building a case to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for failing to manage the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters complex,” Jaret Seiberg, a managing director at investment banking giant TD Cowen, wrote in a research note earlier this week. “We still see Powell’s firing as unlikely though the risk is growing that pressure from conservative media becomes so great the President feels compelled to act.”

Trump himself has questioned whether “fraud” has been committed in the project, which is set to cost around $2.5 billion — $700 million over budget.

Another sticking point for the White House has been some so-called luxury features in a 2021 version of the Fed’s proposal, including private elevators and dining rooms, new marble and a rooftop terrace. In a congressional hearing last month, Powell denied that many of those had remained.

“There’s no V.I.P. dining room. There’s no new marble. We took down the old marble, we’re putting it back up. We’ll have to use new marble where some of the old marble broke. But there’s no special elevators. There’s just old elevators that have been there,” Powell said at that hearing.

One awkward moment during the tour came when Trump suggested that the cost estimates for the project had grown even further than recent reports suggested, to which Powell said he hadn’t heard that.

After looking at a paper Trump handed him, Powell said, “You just added in a third building,” a project separate from the renovation project in question. After some back-and-forth, Powell said that “third building” was a project completed five years ago.

Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who also attended the construction tour with Trump, said, “Bottom line is, we had an honest, candid conversation about some of the overruns at this building. We had it in my banking committee, and he said we were wrong. And turns out, we were right. Thank God, President Trump and his team took enough time to dig into some of the details.”

After returning to the White House Thursday night, Trump posted on Truth Social that it was a “great honor” to tour the construction site, and he offered his real estate “expertise” to help with the renovations.

“On the positive side, our Country is doing very well and can afford just about anything — Even the cost of this building!” he wrote. “I’ll be watching and, hopefully, adding some expertise.”

“It is what it is and, hopefully, it will be finished ASAP,” Trump added.

Tensions between Trump and Powell came to a head last week when CBS News reported that Trump asked some Republican lawmakers if he should fire Powell. The New York Times reported that the president even showed the lawmakers a draft letter to fire the Fed chair.

At a press conference later that day, Trump denied the reports, said Powell is “not doing a very good job” and said it was “unlikely” he would fire Powell, but “I don’t rule out anything.”

Stock, currency and bond markets have all reacted poorly to suggestions of displacing Powell and threatening the independence of the central bank. Republican senators have also reportedly warned Trump that efforts to oust Powell could impact investor confidence in the United States.