CSPAN - President Trump Visits the Federal Reserve
Aired: 2025-07-24
Duration: 04:57


=== President Trump Inspects Fed Construction (04:51) ===

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[00:00:41]  President Trump toured the construction site at the Federal Reserve headquarters with the agency's current chair, Jerome Powell.
[00:00:48]  The president confronted Chairman Powell over cost overruns on the project.
[00:00:52]  Mr. Powell refuted the president's claims and clarified the figures.
[00:00:56]  The president was joined by South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott on the tour and afterwards spoke about interest rates.
[00:01:03]  Thank you
[00:01:42]  very much.
[00:01:42]  We're looking at the construction and we're with the chairman, as you know.
[00:01:47]  Chairman, come on over.
[00:01:49]  And we're just taking a look at what's happening.
[00:01:51]  You know, it's a tough construction job building basements where they didn't exist or expanding them and a lot of very expensive work.
[00:01:59]  There's no question about it.
[00:02:02]  And Tim has been with me for a long time and you're in charge of the committee.
[00:02:06]  Indeed, one of the reasons why we wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses.
[00:02:10]  Wanted to figure out why.
[00:02:13]  Yeah.
[00:02:14]  So we're taking a look and it looks like it's about 3.1 billion.
[00:02:18]  It went up a little bit or a lot.
[00:02:21]  So the 2.7 is now 3.1.
[00:02:24]  I'm not aware of that.
[00:02:25]  Yeah, it just came out.
[00:02:27]  Yeah, I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed.
[00:02:31]  Yeah, it just came out.
[00:02:35]  I know it's added about 3.1 as well.
[00:02:38]  3.1?
[00:02:38]  3.1, 3.2.
[00:02:39]  This came from us?
[00:02:41]  Yes.
[00:02:42]  I don't know who does that.
[00:02:46]  You're including the Martin renovation.
[00:02:49]  You just added in a third building, is what that is.
[00:02:51]  That's a third building.
[00:02:53]  It's a building that's being built.
[00:02:55]  No, it was built five years ago.
[00:02:57]  We finished Martin five years ago.
[00:02:58]  It's finished over as part of the overall work.
[00:03:03]  So we're going to take a look.
[00:03:05]  We're going to see what's happening.
[00:03:07]  And it's got a long way.
[00:03:09]  Do you expect any more additional cost overruns?
[00:03:12]  Don't expect them.
[00:03:14]  We're ready for them.
[00:03:15]  But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don't.
[00:03:19]  Expect to be finished in 2027.
[00:03:22]  We're well along, as you can see.
[00:03:25]  Nice to take these off every once in a while when we're not under too much danger.
[00:03:30]  So any questions?
[00:03:32]  Mr. President, as a real estate developer, as a real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget?
[00:03:41]  Generally speaking, what would I do?
[00:03:43]  I'd fire him.
[00:03:44]  Do you think he was the president using coalits to do that?
[00:03:47]  Well, I'm here just really with the chairman.
[00:03:50]  He's showing us around, showing us the work.
[00:03:52]  And so I don't want to get that.
[00:03:53]  I don't want to be personal.
[00:03:54]  I just would like to see it get finished.
[00:03:58]  And in many ways, it's too bad it started.
[00:04:00]  But it did start.
[00:04:01]  And it's been under construction for a long time.
[00:04:07]  It's going to be a real long time because it looks like it's got a long way to go.
[00:04:10]  Yes, sir.
[00:04:11]  Mr. President, are there things the chairman can say to you today that would make you back off some of the earlier criticism?
[00:04:18]  Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates.
[00:04:21]  Other than that, what can I tell you?
[00:04:23]  The country is doing really well.
[00:04:24]  I just briefed the chairman on the deal we've made with Japan.
[00:04:27]  Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit.
[00:04:32]  That way, they have a little bit lower tariff.
[00:04:35]  And they also opened their country to free trade, which nobody thought was even a possibility.
[00:04:41]  And we get a zero tariff in the free trade.
[00:04:45]  We don't pay tariffs.
[00:04:46]  And they're going to pay 15% on everything they send into our country.
[00:04:50]  So it's great.
[00:04:51]  But they put up as you could call it seed money.
[00:04:55]  Let's call it seed money.
[00:04:56]  You could call it anything you want.