President Donald Trump received a brutal fact-check from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday during a tour of the renovated Federal Reserve headquarters.
Trump claimed that the total cost of the project had soared from $2.7 billion to $3.1 billion, a figure that surprised Powell. Trump then handed Powell a paper that purported to show where the cost overrun occurred. In response, Powell told Trump that his numbers were wrong.
"You're including the Martin renovation," Powell said, referring to another renovation project that occurred in 2021. "You just added in a third building."
"Yeah, but it's a building that's being built," Trump responded.
"That project ended five years ago," Powell shot back.
Trump has repeatedly used the Federal Reserve headquarters renovation project as a means of attacking Powell publicly. The project initially had a $2.5 billion budget, but cost overruns have pushed the total up to $2.7 billion.
