Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has fired back at the Trump administration after it accused him of embarking on an “ostentatious” renovation of its Washington headquarters.
As President Donald Trump steps up his attacks on the central bank chief, Powell issued a point-by-point response rebutting the administration’s claim that he had mismanaged the $2.5 billion project.
The letter was sent to White House budget chief Russell Vought, who had suggested that Powell had broken the law by failing to comply with government oversight regulations.
He also suggested that Powell had lied to Congress in testimony about the status of the construction project, which includes a revamp of the historic marble Marriner S. Eccles Building on the National Mall.
“The President is extremely troubled by your management of the Federal Reserve System,” Vought wrote in the letter he posted to social media last Thursday.
“Instead of attempting to right the Fed’s fiscal ship, you have plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul of your Washington D.C. headquarters.”
Powell strongly rejected that claim, telling Vought the agency had “taken great care” to ensure there was careful oversight from the central bank’s board and its own watchdog.
In a letter sent to Vought late Thursday, the Fed chair also explained that some elements of the project that Vought had raised concerns about—such as new water features, VIP elevators, and a VIP dining room—were not or were no longer a part of the project.
“There are no VIP dining rooms being constructed as part of the project,” Powell wrote.
“There are no special, private, or VIP elevators being constructed as part of the project… Although the Board’s initial design included new water features for the 1951 Constitution Avenue building, they have been eliminated. Fountains that were original to the Eccles building are being restored.”
The $2.5 billion renovation project was approved in 2017 before Powell was appointed under the first Trump administration.
According to Powell’s letter, the project was costly because “significant structural repairs” were needed to two buildings that were constructed in the 1930s, in order to “make the buildings safe, healthy, and effective places to work.”
The “including the removal of asbestos and lead contamination, complete replacement of antiquated systems such as electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, as well as fire detection and suppression systems,” he wrote.
The criticism over the renovation coincides with Trump’s push from the White House for the Fed to lower interest rates, which have held steady so far this year amid market uncertainty over tariffs and other economic impacts.
Speculation mounted this week that the president would fire Powell, but he has ruled that out—for now.
Still, Trump attacked the Fed chair again on Friday morning, describing him as “truly one of my worst appointments.”
“And the Fed Board has done nothing to stop this ‘numbskull’ from hurting so many people,” Trump wrote, accusing the Fed of “choking out the housing market with their high rate.”
“In many ways the Board is equally to blame!”
