Asked Tuesday whether he thought Jerome Powell’s behavior surrounding the renovations of the Federal Reserve building was a “fireable offense,” President Donald Trump said he thought it was, calling the debacle “pretty disgraceful.”
The president pointed to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June.
During his remarks, the Federal Reserve Chairman rejected the notion that recent renovations at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C., and two adjacent buildings – which Powell admitted are over budget – included lavish new features like marble, VIP dining rooms, special elevators, roof terrace gardens, beehives and new water features.
TRUMP SAYS POWELL SHOULD RESIGN IMMEDIATELY FROM FEDERAL RESERVE LEADERSHIP POSITION OVER ECONOMIC MISSTEPS
“They spent $2.5 million building this place. I have to say this. I think he’s terrible. I think he’s a total stiff. But the one thing I didn’t see him is a guy that needed a palace to live in,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
“You talk to the guy. It’s like talking to – nothing. It’s like talking to a chair. No personality, no high intelligence, no nothing. But the one thing I would have never guessed is that he would be spending $2.5 billion to build a little extension unto the fed nobody’s ever seen.”
Trump has been venting his frustrations with Powell to the media over the last few weeks, upset that he has not lowered interest rates quickly enough, noting he acted aggressively to raise rates under his predecessor Joe Biden.
TRUMP VS POWELL: AN UGLY FIGHT WE DON’T NEED
“That’s going to be a lot more money than $2.5 billion to expand. And with all of that to house thousands of people to give him information. And yet out of the 71 economists – and they included me, me and one other person got it right, I got it right. I got it right and one other genius got it right and everybody else was wrong. Sixty-nine were wrong and two were right. I was one of them. And I don’t have a lot of people. I have ours – I have Doug, I have a few people. He has thousands of people, and he got it wrong,” Trump said to reporters while traveling from an artificial intelligence event at Carnegie Mellon University.
“No, I think when you spend $2.5 billion on, really a renovation, I think it’s pretty disgraceful.”
During his gaggle with reporters, the president also spoke about looming trade deals and tariffs.
Trump said he expects around five or six deals with other major countries to get locked by his August 1 deadline, while adding that he plans to send out a letter at some point “talking about many countries that are much smaller,” such as countries in Africa and the Caribbean, addressing how they will be impacted by tariffs.
Trump said it would pertain to around 200 smaller countries when he was pressed on the matter by reporters.
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