Trump Critiques “Very Expensive” Federal Reserve Renovation, Addresses Basement and Water Line
President Donald Trump comments on the Federal Reserve’s renovation after meeting with Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell and touring the central bank’s headquarters.
REPORTER: You’ve been on a number of construction sites. Did you see any mismanagement? PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I see a very luxurious situation taking place. Let’s put it that way. And I was given a very nice tour by the head of construction. And, you know, look, if you look over here, they’re trying to open up the basement. When you open up a basement, first of all, it’s the worst space. Always a basement is the worst space in a building. And it’s also the most expensive space to build. And especially here, because you have a water line. You know, they’re going down into the water, so they have to build a reverse – what’s called a reverse bathtub. The water has to be kept out. It’s very expensive construction. So it would have been good if they didn’t build it. It would have been good if they didn’t do certain other things. If you look at the kind of protection in the hall – have you been able to get in the hall? You saw the protection of plywood. I mean, that was a lot of money just to protect it for a period of time. I would have done it very gingerly and easily and not have just spent, you know, millions of dollars on protection. And there are things that could have been different. Look, look, there’s always Monday morning quarterbacks. I don’t want to be that. I want to help them get it finished. It’s been going on for years, and I want to help them get it finished. And what we really want to do – and I think I can speak for Tim, and I think I can speak for the entire Senate. We can speak for everybody, frankly, is we want to see interest rates come down.
