President Donald Trump\u2019s budget chief on Thursday said that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell \u201chas grossly mismanaged the Fed\u201d and suggested he had misled Congress about a pricey and \u201costentatious\u201d renovation of the central bank\u2019s headquarters.<\/p>\n
The broadside by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought opened up a new front in Trump\u2019s war of words against Powell.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly called on the Fed chairman to cut interest rates, without success. He reportedly has considered firing Powell and, more recently, publicly naming the chairman\u2019s replacement months earlier than the end of Powell\u2019s term next spring.<\/p>\n
Vought\u2019s letter raises the question of whether Trump will seek to remove Powell for cause, at least ostensibly.<\/p>\n
But the Supreme Court in a recent decision strongly suggested that Federal Reserve board members have special protection from being fired by a president.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile continuing to run a deficit since FY23 (the first time in the Fed\u2019s history), the Fed is way over budget on the renovation of its headquarters,\u201d Vought wrote in a post on the social media site X.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow up to $2.5 billion, roughly $700 million over its initial cost,\u201d Vought wrote. \u201cThe cost per square foot is $1,923–double the cost for renovating an ordinary historic federal building. The Palace of Versailles would have cost $3 billion in today\u2019s dollars!\u201d<\/p>\n
Vought\u2019s tweet linked to a letter he sent Powell that referenced the Fed boss\u2019s June 25 testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour testimony raises serious questions about the project\u2019s compliance with the National Capital Planning Act, which requires that projects like the Fed headquarters renovation be approved by the National Capital Planning Commission,\u201d Vought wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plans for this project called for rooftop terrace gardens, VIP private dining rooms and elevators, water features, premium marble, and much more,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
But Powell, in his testimony, said, \u201cThere\u2019s no VIP dining room. There\u2019s no new marble. There are no special elevators. There are no new water features. There\u2019s no beehives and there\u2019s no roof terrace gardens,\u201d Vought wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough minor deviations from approved plans may be inevitable, your testimony appears to reveal that the project is out of compliance with the approved plan with regard to major design elements,\u201d Vought wrote.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Donald Trump\u2019s budget chief on Thursday said that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell \u201chas grossly mismanaged the Fed\u201d and suggested he had misled Congress about a pricey and \u201costentatious\u201d renovation of the central bank\u2019s headquarters. The broadside by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought opened up a new front in Trump\u2019s war…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetradingdictionary.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}