Trump And Powell Bicker Over Fed Building Renovations
Washington: After criticizing the Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell for months, President Donald Trump fought on the front door of the FED on Thursday, and explained the Central Bank chief to the public on the balloon costs of a long -term building project. Powell pushed it back and challenged the President’s latest price tag.
Wearing hard hats and terrible faces, Trump and Powell, who stands in the middle of the construction project, appeal to the mounted TV cameras. Trump claimed that the renewal would cost $ 3.1 billion and would be much higher than the Fed’s $ 2.5 billion. Powell standing next to him shook his head.
After looking at an article presented to him by Trump, the Fed chair said the President added the cost of the renewal of a separate Fed building, known as the Martin building that ended five years ago.
The visit represented the significantly increase in the pressure of the President’s pressure on Powell to reduce borrowing costs, and Trump would accelerate economic growth and reduce the government’s interest payments. The presidents rarely visit the Fed’s offices, but only a few blocks away from the White House, an example of the Independence of the Central Bank from daily politics.
Tr We have to reduce interest rates, Tr Trump said after a short tour, this time he addressed the cameras without Powell. “People almost can’t buy a house.”
However, Trump will be disappointed next week, fed officials will be gathered to decide on their next steps on interest rates. Powell and other officials reported that they would change their key rates to approximately 4.3%. However, economists and Wall Street investors expect the Fed to start the reduction rates in September.
It determines a short -term interest rate that affects other borrowing costs such as federal reserves, mortgages, automobile loans and credit card rates. However, the FED does not directly control other rates determined in the financial markets. Last September, when the Fed reduced its ratio by half a point, mortgage rates actually increased in response.
Before the end of May 26, Trump stepped back from his latest threats against Powell. The FED asked whether the increasing costs, which were estimated to cost $ 1.9 billion in 2022, were “an ignition crime”.
“To do this is a big move and I don’t think it is necessary, Tr Trump added. “I just want to see that there’s something, it’s simple: interest rates are falling.”
And the truth on the social site Trump, “costs are important, but on the positive side, our country is going very well and can meet almost everything – even the cost of the building can cover!” He said.
The FED allowed journalists to visit the building before the visit of Trump, who boasted their own generous spending on architectural calculations that give a Versailles -like gold talent to their buildings in their real estate career.
Journalists Rare Fed Renewal Tour
On Thursday, journalists were injured by cement mixers, pre -loaders and plastic pipes because they had the Fed’s historical center known as the Marriner S. Eccles building and an active construction site covering a second building in Washington in Washington.
FED personnel refusing to be defined, more security requirements, increasing material costs and tariffs and historical protection measures need to comply with the need to comply with the cost of the project, which was budgeting 1.9 billion dollars in 2022, he said.
In 2018, Trump was 25% for Çelik and 10% in aluminum. It increased them to 50%this year. According to government data, steel prices have increased by 60% since plans are approved, while construction materials costs are generally increased by 50%.
The personnel drew attention to the new explosion -resistant windows and seismic walls required to comply with the modern building codes and safety standards set by the Ministry of Internal Security. The Fed said that the Fed should consider the highest security level, including something called “progressive collapse ği, where only parts of the building will fall if the explosives are shot with explosives.
The sensitivity to the President’s visit among the FED personnel during the tour was high. Reporters entered a small room outside the FED’s board of directors and met eight times a year to decide whether the 19 officials would change short -term interest rates. The room would be oval -shaped and someone wrote “oval office üzerinde on the plywood walls.
Fed staff underestimated the inscriptions as a joke. The reporters were painted later when they returned to the room.
During the tour, the FED staff also showed the elevator shaft, which the critics of the congress say that it was only for “VIPs .. Powell said it would be open to all fed personnel since then. The renewal contains an extension of 18 inches (45 cm), so that the elevator is currently accessible to a slightly upgraded area that can be accessed only by steps or a ramp. The staff said that a planning document that says that the elevator would only be for the seven governors of the FED and that it was replaced later.
Renewals in studies for a while
Renewal plans were first approved by the FED’s Board of Directors in 2017. Later, at least one of the Fine Arts Commission, at least one of the few local commissions, including a few Trump appointments, took the proceed to approval. The Commission, the renewal of the FED, known as the 1951 Constitutional Street, put pressure on more marble in the second of the two buildings, which were mostly renewed in a glass extension, which Trump’s appointments were mocking as “glass box”.
Fed personnel also pointed out the complication of historical renovations – both buildings have significant protection needs. He said it would be cheaper to build a new building on an empty site.
As an example, personnel reporters pointed to the place they dug under the EcCles building to add mechanical rooms, storage space and some offices. FED personnel admitted that such structural additions were expensive underground, but HVAC equipment and other mechanics were made to prevent them from being added.
Trump said that after his round, “returning to a construction site makes you feel very good, and adding that the opening of a basement floor was“ the most expensive place to build ”.
The Fed had previously connected most of the cost of the project to underground construction. It also adds three underground parking spaces for its second building. Initially, the Central Bank proposed more above -ground buildings, but DC’s height restrictions ran to Washington and forced more underground construction.
