Short excerpt from a July 24, 2025 YouTube video titled "President Trump Tours the Federal Reserve." The clip records an on-site conversation between President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell focused on construction and renovation at the Federal Reserve complex: reported cost overruns (figures discussed ~ $2.7B rising to ~$3.1B–3.2B), an earlier-built third building, a projected completion around 2027, and a remark by the President about firing an over-budget project manager.
Chapters
Mr. President. The President.
Well, thank you very much. We're looking at the construction and we're with the chairman, as you know. Come on over. And we're just taking a look at what's happening. You know, it's a tough construction job. They're building basements where they didn't exist or expanding them. A lot of very expensive work. There's no question about it. And Tim has been with me for a long time. And you're in charge of the committee. Indeed.
One of the reasons I wanted to see it, the overruns of the expensive, figure out why.
So we're taking a look and it looks like it's about 3.1 billion. It went up a little bit or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1.
I'm not aware of that.
Yeah, it just came out.
I haven't heard that from anybody. Arndo said it about 3.1 as well.
3.1, 3.2.
This came from us.
Yes. I don't know who that is.
You're including the marker on it.
You just added. You just.
You just added in a third building is what that is. That's a third building.
Oh, I know, but it's a building that's being built.
No, it's been. It was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years.
It's part of the overall. So we're going to take a look. We're going to see what's happening. And it's been a long way. Do you expect any more additional crossovers?
Don't expect them. We're ready for them, but we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use. But no, we don't expect to be finished in 2027. Well, along, as you can see.
Nice to take these off every once in a while when we're not under too much danger. So, any questions? Real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget, generally speaking? What would I do? I'd fire him.
Do you think this issue. Mr. President. You can call us to do that.
Well, I'm here just really with the chairman. He's showing us around, showing us the work. And so I don't want to get that. I don't want to be personal. I just would like to see it get finished. And in many ways, it's too bad it started, but it did start, and it's been under construction for a long time. It's going to be a real long time because it looks like it's got a long way to go. Mr. President, are there things the chairman can say to you today that would make you back off some of the earlier criticisms? Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates. Other than that, what can I tell you? The country is doing really well. I just briefed the chairman of the deal we made with Japan. Japan is putting up $550 billion in order to lower their tariffs a little bit. That way they have a little bit lower tariff. And they also opened their country to free trade, which nobody thought was even a possibility. And we get a zero tariff in the free trade. We don't pay tariffs. And they're going to pay 15% on everything they send into our country. So it's great. But they put up as you could call it, seed money. Let's call it seed money. You could call it anything you want. But it's five, it's a total of 550, $50 billion. So nobody thought any of that was possible. And it's wonderful. And we're doing pretty well with the European Union, likewise, and we have some others. They're all really big. And our country is going to make a lot of money. We would be helped if interest rates would come down, but we're going to see how the board rules on that soon. I'd love to see them come down a lot. But we have a country that's thriving. We had a dead country one year ago. Today we have the hottest country anywhere in the world, and we'll get this one finished. Mr. President.
