President Trump said he is considering a lawsuit against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell for “gross incompetence” – adding that he’d love to fire “Too Late Powell” for not slashing interest rates quickly enough.
He claimed that Powell’s renovation of Fed headquarters near the National Mall in Washington, DC, is over budget by roughly $1.5 billion.
“It’s going to end up costing more than $4 billion – $4 billion!” Trump fumed Monday during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Highest price of construction per square foot in the history of the world. Gorgeous monuments are built for a much smaller price,” Trump added. “So we’re thinking about bringing what’s called a gross incompetence lawsuit, gross incompetence against Powell.”
A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve pointed The Post to its most recent budget document, which shows the total costs for the renovation projects at approximately $2.5 billion.
Earlier this year, donning hard-hats during a tour of the construction site, Trump blasted the “very luxurious project” but said he would not fire Powell – as long as he slashed interest rates, a persistent priority of the president’s.
The Federal Reserve issued three quarter-point rate cuts this year in September, October and December, lowering the target rate to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
In a July letter to Russ Vought, the powerful director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, Powell defended the project, claiming it “is large in scope because it involves the renovation of two historic buildings on the National Mall and that were first constructed in the 1930s.”
On Monday, Trump compared the cost of the Fed renovation to the new White House ballroom, claiming his project is “a massive job, and it’s a tiny fraction of that number, and we’re under-budget and ahead of schedule.”
He added that the Fed renovation was Powell’s “baby, and the guy’s just incompetent, I mean there’s nothing you can do about it. Very incompetent man. But we’re going to probably bring a lawsuit against him.”
Such a lawsuit would mark an extraordinary and perhaps unprecedented instance of a president suing one of his own appointees, and it was not immediately clear what laws Trump may have had in mind during his threats.
He reiterated that he would love to fire Powell, but it’s close to the end of his term. The chairman’s seat expires in May 2026.
“But maybe I still might,” Trump added.
He appointed Powell as chairman during his first White House term in 2017 – but Powell has since become a favorite punching bag of Trump’s for not easing monetary policy at a fast-enough pace.
Trump boasted about the country’s recent GDP reading, which grew at an unexpectedly strong 4.3% pace in the third quarter of 2025 – “despite the fact that we have a fool at the Federal Reserve.”
He also took aim at former President Joe Biden for reappointing Powell in 2021.
