U.S. President Donald Trump points to a document as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell fact-checks the numbers on it during a tour of the Federal Reserve Board building, which is currently undergoing renovations, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 24, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo
Economist and public policy professor Justin Wolfers explained that President Donald Trump had one job when he toured the Federal Reserve. And he bungled it.
Speaking to MSNBC on Friday, the University of Michigan professor confessed, "One of the reasons I went to Harvard to study for a Ph.D is so I could answer the question, how many buildings does the Federal Reserve have? And yes, there are three of them."
While at the Fed, Trump grossly inflated the cost of renovations to $3.1 billion, with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) stating that some reports expect the cost to be even $3.2 billion.
As Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pointed out, Trump was including figures from a building completed five years ago. Trump tried to claim it was "being built," but Powell made it clear that the building was completed during Trump's previous term in office, and he didn't even know.
"It's a beautiful moment of leadership," quipped Wolfers.
In reality, the building renovations are significantly over budget, so all Trump had to do was stick to that story.
"The president, instead of focusing on the actual number of $2.7 billion, just added nonsense and made it clear that you can't trust a word he's saying. He didn't have to lose that round of wonderful theater right there. He just had to not lie, but he can't help himself."
He went on to explain that the purpose of an independent Central Bank is so that the chairman couldn't be shoved out on the whim of a president.
"Think about the sheer rot at the heart of American capitalism that no one else is willing to tell the president he's wrong when he's willfully, wildly wrong on so many different things," Wolfers continued.
He lamented the U.S. is "sliding into a form of crony capitalism, where there's such a strong incentive not to offend the boss, and so therefore, to go along with anything that it makes so many in the corporate sector not worth interviewing and not worth talking about because they're trying to protect their own hides rather than share the truth with the public."
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