OAN Staff Blake Wolf
10:05 AM – Tuesday, August 12, 2025
President Donald Trump threatened to file a “major lawsuit” against Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, alleging “grossly incompetent” management of the Federal Reserve’s building construction projects.
President Trump’s latest round of criticism of Powell alleged that the renovations of the Federal Reserve buildings “should have been a $50 Million Dollar fix up,” and instead have ballooned to a $3 billion renovation.
“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell must NOW lower the rate. Steve ‘Manouychin’ really gave me a ‘beauty’ when he pushed this loser. The damage he has done by always being Too Late is incalculable. Fortunately, the economy is sooo good that we’ve blown through Powell and the complacent Board,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
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“I am, though, considering allowing a major lawsuit against Powell to proceed because of the horrible, and grossly incompetent, job he has done in managing the construction of the Fed Buildings. Three Billion Dollars for a job that should have been a $50 Million Dollar fix up. Not good!” Trump added.
Last month, President Trump got into a small spat with Powell over the cost of the Fed building’s construction, where the president stated that the renovation costs have exceeded $3.1 billion.
Powell shook his head in response, stating: “I haven’t heard that from anybody.”
The president went on to explain that the renovations of transforming the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., into a luxury hotel cost less than the renovations of the Fed building, which he argued is a much smaller project.
“I built a great hotel, and the great hotel that everybody in this group knows very well, it’s called the Old Post Office, and it’s a much bigger project than this, and I spent $200 million building it. It was taken down to the steel for the most part … and I built it quickly, and I built it for $200 million. A much bigger job than this,” Trump explained. “It’s got marble bathrooms, the top fixtures, the best of everything, all brand new.”
President Trump has consistently pressured Powell to lower the interest rates for months, explaining that the move would save the United States hundreds of billions of dollars.
At the beginning of July, Trump argued that Powell “cost the USA a future and continue to do so. You should lower the interest rate by a lot! Hundreds of billions of dollars being lost! No inflation.”
Despite Trump’s attempts to get Powell to lower the interest rates, the Fed has maintained the current rates, stating that it seeks to be patient as Trump’s tariffs play out.
Interest rate traders expect that the Fed will reduce the rate by a quarter-point following the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting in September, while also expecting additional cuts after upcoming meetings in October and December.
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