Trump refocuses on desire for lower interest rates during Fed renovation tour

United States President Donald Trump toured the Federal Reserve's (Fed) main headquarters in Washington, DC on Friday. President Trump recently pivoted to criticizing the Fed's long-planned renovations of its headquarters. Trump, who oversaw a top-to-bottom refurbishment of the White House interior to include gilded accents, has claimed that the Fed's renovation is an unnecessary expense to US taxpayers in a bid to further close the gap between the executive branch's ability to control the US central bank, which currently lies outside of the President's extensive reach.

While Trump was touring the Fed, it was noted that a large part of Trump's calculations on the Fed's overspend on renovations includes a hefty chunk of building costs for projects that were approved and started in 2017 during Trump's first term, and completed within the past five years. The Fed's main Eccles building is also long overdue for upgrades to bring the building back in line with federally mandated health and safety guidelines that the Trump administration appears to be in no rush to eliminate or remove.

During Trump's Fed tour, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave an interview on Fox Business, reiterating the Trump team's common refrains against the Fed and also pivoting back into talking about US-China trade talks and tariffs in general.

Key Trump highlights

Tough construction job.
A lot of very expensive work at Fed building.
Looks like Fed building costs went up a lot.
Too bad it started.
I want rates lower.
We'll see how the Fed board rules on interest rates.
We looked around. They have to finish it.
Interest rates have to be lower.
We should have the lowest interest rates of any nation.
I want rates down, and the Fed building finished.
Very good Fed tour.
We sort of understand what happened.
We'd do better if we had lower interest rates.
We have to get housing prices down, and interest rates down.
We're in the process of making a deal with Europe.
We're doing well with the EU.
Europe wants to make a deal very badly.

Bessent highlights

Other Fed operations might impact monetary independence.
Fed's footprint has become too big.
The Fed has undue influence on the economy.
The Fed should get back to the basics.
Countries are willing to pay a toll to trade with the US.
The US is in a pretty good place with China on trade.
I will talk to China about them buying sanctioned oil from Russia and Iran

Snapshots of some of the gilded accents and accessories added to the White House by President Trump's retinue during his second term