US President Donald Trump harshly criticized Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Tuesday, calling him “corrupt or incompetent,” after Powell announced he is facing a Justice Department investigation, which he framed as part of a campaign of “pressure” from the president to lower interest rates.
“He’s either corrupt or incompetent,” Trump said in an interview with the American television network CBS, citing the renovation project of the Fed’s headquarters, whose budget has increased to $2.5 billion (€2.2 billion) from the initial $1.9 billion (€1.63 billion) in 2022.
The US president asserted that Powell “could have fixed it for $25 million (€21.5 million)” for the buildings, which were constructed in the 1930s and have not been renovated since.
The president thus emphasized the alleged motivations of the Justice Department for opening an investigation against the Fed chairman, even though the White House has denied that the Republican is behind the inquiry.
Powell, who has been supported by leading international central bankers—including Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank—revealed on Sunday that the Justice Department had issued the Fed “grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to [his] testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June” regarding the multi-billion dollar renovation of the agency’s headquarters.
In a video posted on the agency’s account on the social media platform X, he described this “unprecedented” action by Washington as an attempt by the US government to “intimidate” and influence monetary policy, and defended his work at the head of the Fed under four administrations of different political affiliations “without favoritism.” Trump has consistently advocated for lowering interest rates at all costs to reduce the federal government’s borrowing costs and stimulate private sector activity.
