Fed Chair Jerome Powell Correctly Distinguishes Trump Pee From Rain
No, that's not true, Charlie Brown did not have hoes!
Donald Trump has been trying to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell — which he can’t, at least not legally —or at least pressure Powell into resigning, because Powell has resisted Trump’s calls to juice up the economy by slashing interest rates. That campaign hasn’t been working out for Trump.
As part of that effort, Trump yesterday “visited” the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in Washington in an attempt to gin up a reason to fire Powell over the price tag for renovations at the building. How can he be trusted to oversee the nation’s money supply when he can’t even bring a building renovation project in on budget? (We’re not actually sure that’s the head of the Federal Reserve’s job, but fuck it.) It sure seemed like a great photo to Trump, the failed casino magnate who went bankrupt multiple times in his own real estate ventures.
It didn’t work, though, not least because Powell is a money guy. He instantly recognized that Trump was talking bullshit, and said so.
It’s the “and said so” part that matters here, kids, because Trump has surrounded himself with chickenshit sycophants whose one goal in their jobs is to agree with Donald Trump. Great Leader simply wasn’t prepared for his “gotcha” to be doused so easily by a guy armed only with a small bucket of facts.
It was elegantly simple, and a fine example of how to factcheck Trump in real time, which requires being thoroughly prepared with the facts to start with.
Bit of context here: The Fed decided about eight years ago to renovate two Great Depression-era buildings in Washington to house almost all of its operations, which would reduce the costs of having staff and computers (and probably at least three abacuses we bet) spread across multiple offices. The initial cost estimate was about $1.9 billion. Once major work actually started in 2022, however, it turned out that the buildings had a lot more lead and asbestos than anticipated. Excavation also turned up soil contamination that had to be dealt with, and groundwater under the buildings was actually closer to the surface than anticipated. And of course, post-pandemic supply chain issues and inflation both led to far higher construction costs.
As the Wall Street Journal points out (gift link), “Architects and construction experts said cost overruns are to be expected with such a project,” especially to comply with federal rules for historic buildings in DC. “Like many federal projects constrained by the capital’s height restrictions or other aesthetic concerns, the Fed had to build expensive underground space.”
All those factors meant that the costs of the restoration project has been pushed up to around $2.5 billion, as the Fed explains in a FAQ.
Even if the cost overruns are a pretty normal headache for such a project, Trump has been eager to portray them as a reason that Powell is too irresponsible to remain in his job. That was the whole point of the photo op at the building site, but Trump couldn’t be satisfied with trying to make political hay out of the real $600 million cost overruns. Instead, he waved around a piece of paper prepared by some clever White House staffer who pretended the overruns were exactly double their actual amount. Trump insisted the final cost estimate “looks like it’s about $3.1 billion, went up a little bit or a lot, so the 2.7 is now 3.1,” while Powell shook his head and gave Trump some impressive side-eye. (Where Trump got “2.7” billion is anyone’s guess. Probably his ass.)
Powell wasn’t buying it at all, not even when Trump dramatically pulled the paper out of his suit pocket.
POWELL: I’m not aware of that, Mr. President.
TRUMP [flourishing the paper]: It just came out.
POWELL: I haven’t heard that from anybody at the Fed.
TRUMP: It just came out!
Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina), who was along for the photo op because he chairs the Senate Banking committee, interjected that he’d seen that estimate as well, and for fun, he tacked on an extra hundred million to the total, saying it was “three-point-one, three-point-two.”
Powell, still not playing, put on his reading glasses and spotted the fake number immediately:
POWELL: This came from us?
TRUMP: Yes
POWELL: Oh, you’re including the Martin renovation. You just added in a third building, is what that is. That’s a third building.
TRUMP: It’s a building that’s being built.
POWELL: No, it was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago.
Trump even tried to get the last word, insisting that the third building was “part of the overall work,” although that too was a lie, Powell knew, because the Martin building was a separate renovation project, completed and reopened in 2021, before work started on the two other buildings.
Powell simply replied, “It’s not new,” and Trump moved on to another topic. Later in the day, White House deputy chief of staff James Blair tried to accuse Powell of “splitting hairs” by pointing out Trump had dragged in a completely unrelated building to add more than half a billion dollars to the cost overruns. Some hair, huh?
Did reporters covering the photo op take Powell’s lead and challenge Trump’s distortions? A really quick-witted reporter might have even pointed out Trump’s habit of lying all the time about real estate, like when he claimed that his 10,996 square-foot Trump Tower apartment was actually a much more valuable 30,000 square feet (but not at property tax time, when it shrank).
Dear reader, the reporters did not do that.
The very first question was tailored to flatter the Great Bankrupt Mogul, asking, “As a real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget?” Trump, obviously pleased, put on his Serious Boss scowl and said “I’d fire ‘em.”
(Again, we’re not sure “building project manager” is part of the Fed chair’s portfolio.)
Trump also pretended he hadn’t been caught in a whopper, and insisted he wasn’t trying to stir up fake reasons to attack Powell, no, not at all! Despite Powell’s assurance that the renovation was on track to finish, as planned, in 2027, Trump pretended he’s just being nice, but a little disappointed in what he pretended was a huge black eye for Powell.
“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, and it's been under construction for a long time. It’s gonna be a real long time, because it looks like it has a long way to go.”
Powell managed not to roll his eyes.
Trump also said, to emphasize that he and Powell are nice and friendly-like, “Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates, but other than that, what can I tell you?” Powell politely chuckled as Trump gave him a “friendly” nudge in the back. Then Trump lied about how he’d forced Japan to pay 15 percent tariffs and to open up to free trade, which no one in history has even thought possible, he’s the best and the economy is roaring, OK?
Don’t get your hopes too high that media outlets will follow Powell’s example and call Trump on his bullshit to his face, or even at all. Too many headlines played up the conflict but pretended it was simply a debate between two men with different points of view, instead of simply saying Powell caught Trump in a lie. Look at this crap:
NPR: Trump visits Federal Reserve and tussles with Jerome Powell in extraordinary moment
CNBC: Trump spars with Powell over renovation costs during Fed visit, but backs off firing threats
CNN: Trump and Powell’s feud just exploded into the public. And then Trump backed off
Bloomberg: Trump’s Fed Building Tour Ends With a Relief Signal for Powell
The worst offender we saw was of course Fox, which portrayed Trump as the flawless victor with the headline “Trump tours Federal Reserve, confronts confused Powell about renovation price tag.” It was a video clip only, so no need to even attempt to show that Powell was “confused.”
Weirdly, both The New York Times and the AP tried to have it both ways. Each outlet ran two entirely different stories, with different reporters on each: a “news” piece suggesting a debate, and an “analysis” that correctly said Trump was wrong and Powell was right. The Times even took special care to frame its “news” story to favor Trump’s insistence that the renovations cost too much.
Also amusing: The AP stories both use the same photo for their very different takes.
In conclusion, hooray for Jerome Powell for not letting Trump lie (and he’s probably doomed anyway). But Jesus H. Christ on the Kiss Cam, couldn’t our brave press outlets please please do better?
[AP / WSJ (gift link) / Federal Reserve FAQ / NPR]
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No. No the press could not do better. That's why we have Wonkette.
CBS edited out the part where Powell corrected assmouth yesterday on the evening news.