CSPAN - President Trump Visits the Federal Reserve
Aired: 2025-07-25
Duration: 05:19


=== President Trump Questions Cost Overruns (05:19) ===

[00:00:00]  Sunday morning meetings to Friday nights with friends and everything in between.
[00:00:04]  But the best connections are always there, right when you need them.
[00:00:09]  So how do you know it's great internet?
[00:00:12]  Because it works.
[00:00:14]  We're Sparklight and we're always working for you.
[00:00:18]  Sparklight supports C-SPAN as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy.
[00:00:29]  President Trump toured the construction site at the Federal Reserve headquarters with the agency's current chair, Jerome Powell.
[00:00:36]  The president confronted Chairman Powell over cost overruns on the project.
[00:00:40]  Mr. Powell refuted the president's claims and clarified the figures.
[00:00:44]  The president was joined by South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott on the tour and afterwards spoke about interest rates.
[00:00:51]  Thank you
[00:01:30]  very much.
[00:01:30]  We're looking at the construction and we're with the chairman, as you know.
[00:01:35]  Chairman, come on over.
[00:01:37]  And we're just taking a look at what's happening.
[00:01:39]  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.
[00:01:48]  There's no question about it.
[00:01:50]  And Tim has been with me for a long time and you're in charge of the committee.
[00:01:54]  Indeed, one of the reasons why I wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses wanted to figure out why.
[00:02:01]  Yeah.
[00:02:02]  So we're taking a look and it looks like it's about 3.1 billion.
[00:02:06]  It went up a little bit or a lot.
[00:02:09]  So the 2.7 is now 3.1.
[00:02:13]  I'm not aware of that.
[00:02:14]  Yeah, it just came out.
[00:02:15]  Yeah, I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed.
[00:02:19]  Yeah, it just came back.
[00:02:24]  Aren't those Fed at about 3.1 as well?
[00:02:26]  3.1?
[00:02:26]  3.1, 3.2.
[00:02:27]  This came from us?
[00:02:29]  Yes.
[00:02:30]  I don't know who does that.
[00:02:34]  You're including the Martin renovation.
[00:02:37]  You just added in a third building, is what that is.
[00:02:39]  That's a third building.
[00:02:41]  It's a building that's being built.
[00:02:43]  No, it was built five years ago.
[00:02:45]  We finished Martin five years ago.
[00:02:47]  It's part of the overall work.
[00:02:51]  So we're going to take a look.
[00:02:53]  We're going to see what's happening.
[00:02:55]  And it's got a long way.
[00:02:57]  Do you expect any more additional cost overruns?
[00:03:00]  Don't expect them.
[00:03:02]  We're ready for them.
[00:03:03]  But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don't.
[00:03:07]  Expect to be finished in 2027.
[00:03:10]  We're well along, as you can see.
[00:03:13]  Nice to take these off every once in a while when we're not under too much danger.
[00:03:18]  So any questions?
[00:03:20]  Mr. President, just a minute.
[00:03:21]  As a real estate developer, as a real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget?
[00:03:29]  Generally speaking, what would I do?
[00:03:31]  I'd fire him.
[00:03:32]  Do you think he was the president using co-wants to do that?
[00:03:35]  Well, I'm here just really with the chairman.
[00:03:38]  He's showing us around, showing us the work.
[00:03:40]  And so I don't want to get that.
[00:03:41]  I don't want to be personal.
[00:03:42]  I just would like to see it get finished.
[00:03:46]  And in many ways, it's too bad it started.
[00:03:48]  But it did start, and it's been under construction for a long time.
[00:03:55]  It's going to be a real long time because it looks like it's got a long way to go.
[00:03:58]  Yes, sir.
[00:03:59]  So Mr. President, are there things the Chairman can say to you today that would make you back off some of the earlier criticism?
[00:04:06]  Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates.
[00:04:09]  Other than that, what can I tell you?
[00:04:11]  The country is doing really well.
[00:04:12]  I just briefed the chairman on the deal we made with Japan.
[00:04:15]  Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit.
[00:04:20]  That way they have a little bit lower tariff.
[00:04:23]  And they also opened their country to free trade, which nobody thought was even a possibility.
[00:04:29]  And we get a zero tariff in the free trade.
[00:04:33]  We don't pay tariffs.
[00:04:34]  And they're going to pay 15% on everything they send into our country.
[00:04:38]  So it's great.
[00:04:39]  But they put up as you could call it seed money.
[00:04:43]  Let's call it seed money.
[00:04:44]  You could call it anything you want.
[00:04:46]  But it's a total of $550 billion.
[00:04:50]  So nobody thought any of that was possible.
[00:04:53]  And it's wonderful.
[00:04:54]  And we're doing pretty well with the European Union, likewise.
[00:04:58]  And we have some others.
[00:04:59]  They're all really big, and our country is going to make a lot of money.
[00:05:03]  We would be helped if interest rates would come down, but we're going to see how the board rules on that soon.
[00:05:08]  I'd love to see them come down a lot.
[00:05:10]  But we have a country that's thriving.
[00:05:13]  We had a dead country one year ago.
[00:05:15]  Today we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
[00:05:18]  And we'll get this one finished.