CNN's Alayna Treene tried to keep up in response to President Donald Trump's heated press conference alongside Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, after his apparent attempt to demonize the U.S. central banker over agency building renovations blew up in his face in a moment fellow correspondent Kaitlan Collins deemed "remarkable."
"I think it's worth noting, by the way, that the markets are closed, because they do not really like it when Donald Trump suggests that perhaps he's going to throw Jerome Powell out of a job, but there you have it," said anchor Kasie Hunt. "What do you make of what we just saw, and what has your reporting been?"
"I mean, it was an incredibly awkward scene, Kasie, to say the least," said Treene. "I mean, look, it's — you have the president there. I thought it was notable when he said, come over here, come on over, chairman, to Fed chair Jerome Powell. I mean, someone he has been openly warring with, openly attacking for months now, even before he actually came into office. This has been going on, of course, needling him over this idea of wanting the Fed to lower rates."
"But to get back to this investigation and why he's touring this ... we know the OMB, the White House budget chief, Russ Vought, is also there, among others, to tour these different renovations," said Treene. "And this all stemmed from an investigation ... looking into the cost of this."
It's all part of laying the groundwork for an excuse to fire Powell, Treene continued — but his aides have pushed him hard against this.
"To your point, it's because they know that this would create a massive mess in the markets," said Treene. "You know, with the economy to have an independent chair. The Fed operates independently of the executive branch, to have the president meddling in that. And so what I talked to my sources here at the White House, they've told me a lot of this, of course, is the president wanting to further, you know, criticize Powell. This entire investigation is in part about kind of embarrassing him. But they also want to get to the bottom of this budget. I should note, you know, Russell Vought, OMB, has said that it was going to be $2 billion. That's far beyond the $700 million that they had initially slated for these renovations."
"We have heard Powell and others from the Fed say that it's because this has taken more time than they anticipated," she added. "The materials are more expensive, giving out a lot of different reasons. But that's what a lot of this is really about today ... and the fact that you have Powell standing there, the imagery of that is pretty remarkable."
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