CSPAN - President Trump Visits the Federal Reserve
Aired: 2025-07-25
Duration: 05:32


=== Confrontation at the Fed (02:30) ===

[00:00:01]  Where are you going?
[00:00:03]  Or maybe a better question is, how far do you want to go?
[00:00:09]  And how fast do you want to get there?
[00:00:12]  Now we're getting somewhere.
[00:00:14]  So let's go.
[00:00:18]  Let's go faster.
[00:00:21]  Let's go further.
[00:00:24]  Let's go beyond.
[00:00:30]  Midco supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front-row seat to democracy.
[00:00:42]  President Trump toured the construction site at the Federal Reserve headquarters with the agency's current chair, Jerome Powell.
[00:00:49]  The president confronted Chairman Powell over cost overruns on the project.
[00:00:53]  Mr. Powell refuted the president's claims and clarified the figures.
[00:00:57]  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.
[00:01:43]  We're looking at the construction and we're with the chairman, as you know.
[00:01:48]  Chairman, come on over.
[00:01:50]  And we're just taking a look at what's happening.
[00:01:52]  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.
[00:02:00]  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.
[00:02:07]  Indeed, one of the reasons why I wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses.
[00:02:11]  Wanted to figure out why.
[00:02:14]  Yeah.
[00:02:14]  So we're taking a look and it looks like it's about 3.1 billion.

=== Expectation 2027 (03:16) ===

[00:02:19]  It went up a little bit or a lot.
[00:02:22]  So the 2.7 is now 3.1.
[00:02:25]  I'm not aware of that.
[00:02:26]  Yeah, it just came out.
[00:02:28]  Yeah, I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed.
[00:02:32]  It just came out.
[00:02:36]  Our notes added about 3.1 as well.
[00:02:38]  3.1?
[00:02:39]  3.1, 3.2.
[00:02:40]  This came from us?
[00:02:42]  Yes.
[00:02:43]  I don't know who does that.
[00:02:47]  You're including the Martin renovation.
[00:02:50]  You just added in a third building, is what that is.
[00:02:52]  That's a third building.
[00:02:54]  It's a building that's being built.
[00:02:56]  It was built five years ago.
[00:02:58]  We finished Martin five years ago.
[00:03:00]  It's part of the overall work.
[00:03:04]  So we're going to take a look.
[00:03:06]  We're going to see what's happening.
[00:03:08]  And it's got a long way.
[00:03:10]  Do you expect any more additional cost overruns?
[00:03:13]  Don't expect them.
[00:03:15]  We're ready for them.
[00:03:16]  But we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don't.
[00:03:20]  Expect to be finished in 2027.
[00:03:23]  We're well along, as you can see.
[00:03:26]  Nice to take these off every once in a while when we're not under too much danger.
[00:03:31]  So any questions?
[00:03:33]  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?
[00:03:42]  Generally speaking, what would I do?
[00:03:44]  I'd fire him.
[00:03:45]  Do you think this issue as a president usually co-works to do that?
[00:03:48]  Well, I'm here just really with the chairman.
[00:03:51]  He's showing us around, showing us the work.
[00:03:53]  And so I don't want to get that.
[00:03:54]  I don't want to be personal.
[00:03:55]  I just would like to see it get finished.
[00:03:59]  And in many ways it's too bad it started.
[00:04:01]  But it did start.
[00:04:02]  And it's been under construction for a long time.
[00:04:08]  It's going to be a real long time.
[00:04:09]  Because it looks like it's got a long way to go.
[00:04:11]  Yes, sir.
[00:04:12]  Mr. President, are there things the chairman can say to you today that would make you back off some of the earlier criticism?
[00:04:19]  Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates.
[00:04:22]  Other than that, what can I tell you?
[00:04:24]  The country is doing really well.
[00:04:25]  I just briefed the chairman on the deal we've made with Japan.
[00:04:28]  Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit.
[00:04:33]  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.
[00:04:42]  And we get a zero tariff in the free trade.
[00:04:46]  We don't pay tariffs.
[00:04:47]  And they're going to pay 15% on everything they send into our country.
[00:04:51]  So it's great.
[00:04:52]  But they put up as you could call it seed money.
[00:04:56]  Let's call it seed money.
[00:04:57]  You could call it anything you want.
[00:04:58]  But it's a total of $550 billion.
[00:05:03]  So nobody thought any of that was possible.
[00:05:06]  And it's wonderful.
[00:05:07]  And we're doing pretty well with the European Union, likewise.
[00:05:11]  And we have some others.
[00:05:12]  They're all really big.
[00:05:13]  And our country is going to make a lot of money.
[00:05:15]  We would be helped if interest rates would come down, but we're going to see how the board rules on that soon.
[00:05:20]  I'd love to see them come down a lot.
[00:05:23]  But we have a country that's thriving.
[00:05:26]  We had a dead country one year ago.
[00:05:28]  Today we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.
[00:05:31]  And we'll get this one finished.