Trump and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell had an awkward clash on camera during the president’s tour of the Fed’s headquarters.
President Donald Trump said Monday that the Justice Department will not drop the criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, “will see it through to the end.”
Trump added that the rising costs to renovate the Fed’s two main buildings along the National Mall “are either gross incompetence or some form of theft or kickbacks.” He also said he “feels bad” for Kevin Warsh, whom he recently nominated to succeed Powell in May. “He may not have an office for the next four years,” Trump said, referring to the overhaul of the Fed’s buildings.
President Donald Trump speaks with Fed Chairman Jerome Powell during a tour of the Federal Reserve in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2025. (Official White House photo by Daniel Torok)
THE FED’S $2.5BILLION RENOVATION IS PRESIDENT TRUMP AND TEAM
“They spent almost $4 billion on this whole renovation. I’m doing buildings – I built a hotel, the Waldorf, and I did it for about $200 million,” Trump said, adding that his previous real estate projects dwarf the size and scope of the project. Federal Reserve renovations.
The renovation costs are now at the center of a Justice Department criminal investigation opened in January into Powell’s testimony in Congress on the project.
FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN POWELL UNDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO LOFT RENOVATION
Construction of the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Building in Washington, DC, on July 14, 2025. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Powell called the move “unprecedented” in a Jan. 11 video statement and another example of what he described as Trump’s continued threats to the central bank. His decision to respond so publicly, after days of private consultations with advisers, marked a sharp departure from his usually measured approach.
The renovation is estimated to cost $2.5 billion and will be financed by the central bank itself, not taxpayers.
The Fed is self-financing and does not rely on appropriations from Congress to cover its operating costs, including employee salaries, facility maintenance and current renovations. The main income comes from interest on government bonds and fees charged to financial institutions.
The grand atrium of the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Building during a media tour of the renovation of the central bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC, on July 24, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
In June 2025, Powell told members of the Senate Banking Committee: “There is no new marble. There are no special elevators. They are old elevators that have been there. There are no new water features. There are no beehives and there are no roof garden terraces.”
POWELL REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD BE TO GET OUT OF THE FED NOW THE PRESSURE IS ON
Powell also told lawmakers that no one “wants to do a major renovation of a historic building during their term.”
“We decided to take it on because, honestly, when I was administrative governor, before I became chairman, I started to understand how desperately the Eccles Building really needed some serious renovation,” Powell said, adding that the building is “not really safe” and not waterproof.
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building is visible as a major renovation of the building and the 1951 Constitution Avenue Building takes place in Washington, DC on July 24, 2025 (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
He also said the cost overruns are partly due to unexpected construction challenges and inflation in the country.
Trump has previously threatened legal action over the renovations and mocked the project’s cost and design.
“They’re building a basement in the Potomac River. I could have told them. That’s very hard to do, and it doesn’t work, and it’s very expensive,” Trump said. “But they are worth $4 billion, led by this clown,” he added in Novemberreferring to Powell.
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Meanwhile, Warsh’s confirmation as leader of the world’s most powerful central bank could be delayed by Republican opposition related to the criminal investigation into Powell.
Warsh, but must first be confirmed by a simple majority in the Senate, a process that typically begins with a hearing and vote in the Senate Banking Committee.
Kevin Warsh during the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank at IMF headquarters in Washington, DC, on April 25, 2025. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Sen. Thom Tillis, RN.C. said last week that he will oppose the confirmation of a Federal Reserve nominee until the Trump administration completes its investigation into Powell. Tillis’s opposition is particularly weighty given his seat on the Senate Banking Committee.
With Tillis halting Warsh’s nomination, the only way to force him out of the Senate Banking Committee would be a Senate discharge vote, a move that would require 60 votes and is unlikely in a deeply divided Senate, especially given tensions over the Powell investigation.
