Trump threatens Fed chair Jerome Powell with 'major lawsuit', says 'the damage he has done...'

US President Donald Trump once again called for an immediate interest rate reduction in a Truth Social post on Tuesday, while offering more criticism of the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Trump has touted a "major lawsuit" against Jerome Powell over the rising costs of the renovation of Fed buildings.

Trump referred to Powell as "Too Late" in his social media statement, claiming the Fed chair has caused "incalculable" damage by being consistently behind the curve on monetary policy decisions. "The damage he has done by always being Too Late is incalculable," Trump wrote of Fed Chair Jerome Powell on his Truth Social platform.

The president also mentioned that he was "considering allowing a major lawsuit against Powell to proceed" related to what he described as mismanagement of Federal Reserve building construction projects.


In his post, Trump alleged that $3 billion was spent on Federal Reserve building work that should have cost only $50 million for renovations.

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Why does Trump want to sue Jerome Powell?

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to allow a “major lawsuit” against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to go forward. He said that the lawsuit would relate to Powell’s management of major renovations at the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., which has become one of Trump’s prime targets of criticism.

The Federal Reserve is overhauling two of its historic buildings in a multi-billion-dollar modernization project that it says will save money over time by allowing it to "consolidate most of its operations." It attributes the higher-than-expected costs to essential redesigns, discrepancies between initial estimates and actual expenses over time, and unexpected challenges, including greater-than-anticipated asbestos and toxic soil contamination.

“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell must NOW lower the rate,” Trump wrote in the post. In a Truth Social post, Trump said he is "considering allowing a major lawsuit against Powell to proceed because of the horrible, and grossly incompetent, job he has done in managing the construction of the Fed Buildings."

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Trump also repeated his demand for Powell's Fed to cut interest rates after the most recent inflation data was published. Trump and Powell publicly clashed during commander-in-chief's visit to the Fed construction project in July, when Powell disputed the president's characterization of the costs involved.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Powell this year over the Fed's decisions to keep interest rates steady since its last cut in December. Policymakers have been cautiously monitoring the effects of Trump's wide-ranging tariffs on the world's biggest economy, as they mulled the right time to lower rates further. This is because it takes time for levies to filter through to consumer prices.

(With agency inputs)