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Powell Pushes Back on Trump’s $3.1 Billion Fed Renovation Claim During 2025 Tour

During a 2025 tour, Powell said Trump’s $3.1 billion renovation figure included the Martin building, completed five years earlier. AP’s contemporaneous figure and the Fed’s current approved budget have different contexts and scopes.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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During a July 24, 2025, tour of the Federal Reserve renovation site, then-Chair Jerome Powell challenged President Donald Trump’s $3.1 billion figure: Powell said it included the Martin building, which he said had been completed five years earlier. That made the dispute partly about which buildings the total covered—not simply two competing estimates for the same work.

What Powell said about Trump’s $3.1 billion figure

Trump, Powell and Senator Tim Scott toured the active renovation site on July 24, 2025. In the official transcript, Trump said the project appeared to be about $3.1 billion. Powell responded: “No, you’re including the Martin renovation. You just added——” He then said, “We finished Martin 5 years ago.”

Powell’s correction was about scope: he said Trump’s figure included the Martin renovation, a separate building project already completed by the time of the tour. The transcript records Trump’s claim and Powell’s response; it does not establish that $3.1 billion was the approved budget for the two buildings then being renovated. The official July 24, 2025, transcript identifies the speakers and preserves the exchange.

How the renovation figures differ

The figures reported around the tour and in the Federal Reserve’s project FAQ refer to different sources, dates or scopes. They should not be treated as interchangeable estimates of one unchanged project.

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Figure Source and context Building scope
$3.1 billion Trump’s statement during the July 24, 2025, tour, as recorded in the official transcript Powell said the figure included the Martin renovation, completed five years earlier
$2.5 billion Associated Press’s rounded description of the Fed figure during its July 24, 2025, reporting AP’s contemporaneous description of the renovation figure; AP said Trump’s total included the separate Martin building
$1.9 billion Associated Press’s description of the project budget in 2022 AP’s account of the project budget at that time
$2.46 billion Federal Reserve Board’s current project FAQ; the page does not state a publication date Board-approved budget for renovating the Eccles building and the 1951 Constitution Avenue building

The Fed’s FAQ says the Board first approved the project in 2017 and that its approved budget covers the Eccles and 1951 Constitution Avenue buildings. The Board describes the work as a renovation of two historic buildings and says the Eccles building had not received a comprehensive renovation since it was built nearly a century earlier. It also says the Board oversees the project and approves its budget annually. These are the Fed’s descriptions of its own project and oversight. Read the Federal Reserve’s renovation FAQ.

The $2.5 billion figure is AP’s rounded account of what the Fed figure was during the tour; the $2.46 billion figure is the amount the Fed FAQ now identifies as the Board-approved budget for the two buildings. The sources do not make the figures equivalent dated snapshots, so the difference should not be presented as a simple overrun calculation.

Why Trump and Powell were touring the site

The exchange took place amid Trump’s broader public pressure on Powell to lower interest rates, a context reported by the Associated Press. That context helps explain the political attention around the visit, but the reporting does not establish either person’s private motive for what they said during the tour. AP’s July 24, 2025, account describes the cost dispute and the pressure over rates.

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What a later watchdog review found

A September 30, 2026, Reuters report on the inspector general’s review added a separate assessment of project management. Reuters reported that the inspector general found deficiencies, including weak cost controls and oversight, but no grounds for a criminal referral or administrative misconduct. The report, as summarized by Reuters, also described the absence of a guaranteed maximum price and rising mechanical, electrical and plumbing costs. Those later findings concern management of the project; they do not change what Powell said about the scope of Trump’s figure during the 2025 tour. Read Reuters’ report via Investing.com.

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