{"id":34081,"date":"2025-07-10T21:08:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T21:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=34081"},"modified":"2025-07-10T21:08:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T21:08:24","slug":"white-house-opens-new-front-in-attack-on-fed-chief-jay-powell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=34081","title":{"rendered":"White House opens new front in attack on Fed chief Jay Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=2e7f2b75-b7f2-4878-bbe4-210caf693e3c&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>The White House has accused Jay Powell of \u201cgrossly\u201d mismanaging an \u201costentatious\u201d refurbishment of the Federal Reserve\u2019s Washington headquarters, opening a new front of attack in the White House\u2019s battle with the US central bank.<\/p>\n<p>Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/russvought\/status\/1943362774416883908\" data-trackable=\"link\">post<\/a> on X that Powell, the Fed chair, had \u201cgrossly mismanaged the Fed\u201d, accusing the central bank chief of presiding over a renovation of its headquarters that was now $700mn over budget. <\/p>\n<p>In the letter that formed part of the X post, the Trump ally said: \u201cThe President is extremely troubled by your management of the Federal Reserve System. Instead of attempting to right the Fed\u2019s fiscal ship, you have plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul of your Washington DC headquarters.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Vought\u2019s criticism over the refurbishment of the Marriner Eccles Building, which he claimed was at $2.5bn costing almost as much of the Palace of Versailles in current dollars, marks a fresh tactic in the Trump administration\u2019s battle with the bank. <\/p>\n<p>President Donald Trump launches almost daily attacks on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/federal-reserve\" data-trackable=\"link\">Fed<\/a> over its rates policy, labelling Powell a \u201cstubborn mule\u201d and a \u201cnumbskull\u201d for the central bank\u2019s decision to leave interest rates on hold at 4.25-4.5 per cent since the turn of the year. <\/p>\n<p>The Fed says it cannot cut rates further until it has more evidence of how Trump\u2019s trade war will affect US inflation. <\/p>\n<p>Trump has also repeatedly accused the Fed of costing the US government hundreds of billions of dollars in higher refinancing costs. <\/p>\n<p>Republican members of Congress have attacked the Fed over the cost of the refurbishment, with Senate banking committee chair Tim Scott saying features such as private dining rooms and ornate water features appeared out of touch when ordinary Americans were struggling. <\/p>\n<p>Billionaire Tesla owner Elon Musk also highlighted the cost of the rebuild, which began in 2021, during his time as the head of Trump\u2019s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). <\/p>\n<p>But Vought\u2019s remarks mark the first direct attack from a close ally of Trump. <\/p>\n<p>Powell has described media reports regarding the excesses of the rebuild as \u201cinaccurate\u201d and claimed in congressional hearings that many of the features laid out in the original plans \u2014 including special elevators, beehives and roof terraces \u2014 had been scrapped. <\/p>\n<p>Bill Pulte, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, claimed Powell\u2019s congressional testimony was misleading and called for him to resign in comments reposted by the president, who echoed Pulte\u2019s call for the Fed chair to quit ahead of the end of his second term in May 2026. <\/p>\n<p>In the letter attached to his X post, Vought said Powell\u2019s testimony raised \u201cserious questions about the project\u2019s compliance with the National Capital Planning Act\u201d as the Fed chair\u2019s remarks implied the project was now out of compliance with the plan approved by the National Capital Planning Commission. <\/p>\n<p>Vought called on Powell to respond to a number of questions raised in the letter within seven business days. <\/p>\n<p>The Fed declined to comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/2e7f2b75-b7f2-4878-bbe4-210caf693e3c\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}