WASHINGTON: The White House is trying to turn the Federal Reserve into a poster child for wasteful spending, criticizing an expensive renovation at the central bank’s headquarters as President Donald Trump pursues an extraordinary pressure campaign to lower interest rates.
The latest step came Thursday when Russ Vought, Trump’s top budget adviser, sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell saying the president is “extremely troubled” that plans may have violated government building rules with an “ostentatious overhaul.”
Trump also named two close aides — James Blair, a deputy chief of staff, and Will Scharf, the staff secretary who furnishes the president with executive orders for his signature — to the National Capital Planning Commission, an obscure panel that could provide another avenue to increase scrutiny.
Blair said he would be “requesting a review of all previous and current building plans” and suggested that Powell wasn’t honest while testifying to Congress about the renovations last month.
If Powell isn’t truthful, Blair wrote on social media, “how else is the American Public to maintain confidence that its monetary policy manager is acting in their interests?”
Taken together, the latest steps amount to an escalating effort to dislodge Powell from his position as chairman before his term ends next May. It’s an unprecedented attempt to reshape the Federal Reserve’s traditional role as an autonomous arbiter of US monetary policy.
If successful, Trump will have expanded his influence to yet another corner of American government that was once seen as beyond the reach of political pressure, but he will have also jeopardized the independence that has made the central bank a foundational player in the US economy.
On Wednesday, Trump said Powell “should resign immediately” so “we should get somebody in there that’s going to lower interest rates.” He suggested that he’d rather have Scott Bessent, his Treasury secretary, as a replacement.
Powell has resisted Trump’s pressure, largely out of concern that Trump’s tariff plans could increase costs for American consumers. If rates are lowered too aggressively, it could lead to a resurgence of inflation.
But Trump insists that inflation is no longer a problem, and a rate cut would help make mortgages, auto loans and other forms of consumer debt cheaper. Trump has also said it would allow the US government to finance its debt more cheaply, a pressing concern as legislation signed by the president is poised to increase the federal deficit by extending tax cuts.
“LOWER THE RATE!!!” Trump wrote on social media on Thursday as he continued a near-daily drumbeat of criticism.
However, there’s no guarantee that financial markets will reduce rates on government debt even if the Fed bows to Trump’s wishes. Such a situation could lead to higher interest costs for consumers — a reminder of how monetary missteps may backfire.
Powell was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Barack Obama, then made chairman by Trump during his first term. But in his second term, Trump turned Powell — who has sought to avoid politics and refrains from responding directly to the president— into one of his primary antagonists.
Trump has said that he wouldn’t directly oust Powell — “I don’t know why it would be so bad, but I’m not going to fire him,” he said last month. The Supreme Court said in May that it could block such a step.
However, Trump’s allies have found other ways to make Powell uncomfortable.
Bill Pulte, the Trump-appointed director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, also accused Powell of lying to Congress about the renovations.
“I am asking Congress to investigate Chairman Jerome Powell, his political bias, and his deceptive Senate testimony, which is enough to be removed ‘for cause,’” he said last week. Pulte said the situation “stinks to high heaven.”
Vought, in his own letter, said the called the initial renovation plans featuring rooftop terrace gardens, VIP dining rooms and premium marble an “ostentatious overhaul.” Vought also suggested that Powell misled Congress by saying the headquarters had never had a serious renovation, saying that an update to its roof and building systems that was completed in 2003 counts as a “comprehensive” renovation.
Fed officials did not respond to an email seeking a response to the letter. Powell said in Senate testimony last month that some of the elements in the 2021 plan such as the dining rooms and rooftop terraces are no longer part of the project for the 90-year-old Marriner S. Eccles Building.
The debate over the renovation could set up a legal battle between the White House and the Fed, which under the law is allowed to use its own judgment to establish “suitable” and “adequate” quarters for its operations.
Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola-Marymount University, said “it’s good that the central bank budget is coming under review and scrutiny.”
However, he warned against using such issues to challenge the Fed’s independence. If that’s compromised, he said, it’s “bad for the economy, that’s bad for inflation expectations and therefore long term inflation.” ___
Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.
White House escalates pressure campaign on Federal Reserve by targeting its headquarters renovation
https://arab.news/8q2c4
White House escalates pressure campaign on Federal Reserve by targeting its headquarters renovation
Trump signals interest in easing tensions, but Minneapolis sees little change on the streets
- Immigration enforcement operations and confrontations with activists continued Wednesday in Minneapolis and St. Paul
MINNEAPOLIS: President Donald Trump seemed to signal a willingness to ease tensions in Minneapolis after a second deadly shooting by federal immigration agents, but there was little evidence Wednesday of any significant changes following weeks of harsh rhetoric and clashes with protesters.
The strain was evident when Trump made a leadership change by sending his top border adviser to Minnesota to take charge of the immigration crackdown. That was followed by seemingly conciliatory remarks about the Democratic governor and mayor.
Trump said he and Gov. Tim Walz, whom he criticized for weeks, were on “a similar wavelength” following a phone call. After a conversation with Mayor Jacob Frey, the president praised the discussion and declared that “lots of progress is being made.”
But on city streets, there were few signs of a shift. Immigration enforcement operations and confrontations with activists continued Wednesday in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
A group of protesters blew whistles and pointed out federal officers in a vehicle on a north Minneapolis street. When the officers’ vehicle moved, a small convoy of activists followed in their cars for a few blocks until the officers stopped again.
When Associated Press journalists got out of their car to document the encounter, officers with the federal Bureau of Prisons pushed one of them, threatened them with arrest and told them to get back in their car despite the reporters’ identifying themselves as journalists. Officers from multiple federal agencies have been involved in the enforcement operations.
From their car, the AP journalists saw at least one person being pepper sprayed and one detained, though it was unclear if that person was the target of the operation or a protester. Agents also broke car windows.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is visiting Minnesota, said 16 people were arrested Wednesday on charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement in the state. She said more arrests were expected.
“NOTHING will stop President Trump and this Department of Justice from enforcing the law,” Bondi said in a social media post.
Messages seeking comment were left with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol.
Woman tells agents: ‘They’re good neighbors’
On Wednesday afternoon in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center, half a dozen agents went to a house in a small residential neighborhood.
One agent knocked on the door of the home repeatedly. Another told the AP they were seeking a man who had been twice deported and was convicted of domestic abuse. The agent said the man had run into the home and the agents lacked a judicial warrant to get inside.
Some federal immigration officers have asserted sweeping power to arrest someone considered illegally present or otherwise deportable using an administrative warrant but without a judge’s warrant. The key difference in the two warrants is whether agents can forcibly enter a private property to make an arrest, as they were captured on video doing in Minneapolis earlier this month.
A handful of activists blew whistles at the agents in Brooklyn Center. One agent said: “They’d rather call the police on us than to help us. Go figure.”
As the agents were preparing to leave, a woman called out to them saying, “You need to know they’re good neighbors.”
Kari Rod told the AP that she didn’t know these neighbors well, but they had come to her garage sale, kept their yard clean and waved hello when she drove by. She didn’t believe enforcement agents to be speaking the truth about whom they arrest, including another neighbor whom she said was deported to Laos last summer.
“I don’t trust a single thing they said about who they are,” Rod said. “From my interactions, I know them way better than anyone else does, any one of those federal agents.”
Immigrants are ‘still very worried’
Many immigrant families are still fearful of leaving their homes, and Latino businesses are still closed, said Daniel Hernandez, who owns the Minneapolis grocery store Colonial Market. He also runs a popular Facebook page geared toward informing the Hispanic community in the Twin Cities.
While Colonial Market is open, all but one of the dozen immigrant-run businesses that rented space inside have closed since late December, and none has plans to reopen, Hernandez said.
“The reality is the community is still very worried and afraid,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez referenced Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, who helped lead the administration’s crackdown in the Twin Cities and who has reportedly been assigned elsewhere.
Bovino “was removed, but the tactics so far are still the same,” Hernandez said. “Nobody now is trusting the government with those changes.”
The federal enforcement extended to the city’s Ecuadorian consulate, where a federal law enforcement officer tried to enter before being blocked by employees.
Judge warns ICE about not complying with federal orders
In Minnesota federal court, the issue of ICE not complying with court orders came to the fore as Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said the agency had violated 96 court orders in 74 cases since Jan. 1.
“This list should give pause to anyone — no matter his or her political beliefs — who cares about the rule of law,” he wrote. “ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.”
Schiltz earlier this week ordered ICE’s acting director to personally appear in his courtroom Friday after the agency failed to obey an order to release an Ecuadorian man from detention in Texas. The judge canceled the order after the agency freed the man.
The judge, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, warned ICE that future noncompliance may result in future orders requiring the personal appearances of Acting Director Todd Lyons or other government officials.
ICE didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Veteran visits sidewalk memorial
Elsewhere on Wednesday, Donnie McMillan placed a cardboard sign reading “In remembrance of my angel” at the makeshift memorial where Alex Pretti was shot.
The Vietnam veteran knelt to pay his respects and saluted to honor the nurse whom he said he remembered seeing during his frequent visits to the Veterans Affairs hospital where Pretti worked.
“I feel like I’ve lost an angel right here,” McMillan, 71, said, pointing to the growing sidewalk memorial covered in flowers, candles and signs. “This is not the way we should operate.”
Also Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said two federal agents involved in Pretti’s death have been on leave since Saturday, when the shooting happened.
US Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, spoke to journalists one day after a man attacked her during a town hall meeting by squirting a strong-smelling substance on her as she denounced the Trump administration.
“What is unfolding in our state is not accidental. It is part of a coordinated effort to target Black and brown, immigrant and Muslim communities through fear, racial profiling and intimidation,” Omar said. “This administration’s immigration agenda is not about law enforcement — it is about making people feel they do not belong.”
