Trump’s appointed pressed for marble in the renewal of Fed buildings, the White House now attacks

Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump has looked at the marble finishes and the high price of the Federal Reserve headquarters to claim fires for fires Jerome Powell, with whom he has fought for years for interest rates. But the extensive use of marble in the building is, at least, the result of policies backed by Trump himself.

As the Fed advanced with plans to renew its headquarters of the era of the great depression in Washington during Trump’s first mandate, he faced concerns in 2020 during a research process that involved Trump’s named those named, who asked for more “Georgia White Marble” for the construction facade.

The Fed architects said that the Central Bank had wanted the glass walls to reflect the Fed as a transparent institution, but three appointed from Trump for a local commission felt that the marble was better adjusted to the historical character of the building. Marble was added as a result, according to the minutes of the Commission of Fine Arts, which advises the federal government on architecture.

The marble does not explain the approximately $ 600 million in excess costs for the Fed headquarters and another nearby offices building, now budgeted to cost $ 2.5 billion, which also includes the addition of an underground parking garage and new glass atrium in the building’s courtyards. But the roots of its extensive use are further bury the attempts of the White House to use the renewal to paint the central banker as a gastor drop -down as a possible pretext to eliminate it.

“I would not be surprised if the result costs more” due to the additional marble, said Alex Krieger, Professor Emeritus from Harvard University who was a member of the Commission and participated in hearings on the Fed proposal.

Russ Vought, Trump’s main budget advisor, cited “Premium Marble” in a letter to Powell last week as an example of the “ostentatious review.”

In an answer on Thursday night, Powell wrote that the project “would use a new domestic marble” for several reasons, including “addressing the concerns raised by external review agencies.”

The National Capital Planning Commission, which also reviewed and approved the FED renewal project, has begun investigation into how Powell supervised the updates.

“The extravagant multimillionaire renewal of the Federal Reserve occurred in the surveillance of Fed leadership, and Fed leadership must own this poor management of taxpayers’ dollars, as well as their failed cover -up work,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. A Fed spokesman declined to comment.

There is an awkward possibility that the fate of the Central Bank of the United States and its fundamental role in the economy depend on a dispute over the costs and renewal architecture, one that could carry a broader legal battle on whether Trump can fire a Fed president who does not like it after the Supreme Court in May described the institution as protections against an abrupt dismissal.

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Trump, who has redecored the Oval office in Gold Leaf, has argued that inflation is not a concern, so Fed can drastically reduce its rate to encourage more loans. But Powell and other members of the Fed Committee are waiting to see if Trump tariffs raise inflation, which higher interest rates could help Blunt.

The president of the FED rejected criticism during an audience at the June Congress that the renewal was luxurious by saying that some characteristics were eliminated due to the cost, which led the White House to speculate if Powell cheated legislators or made changes to renewal plans without obtaining additional approvals. At that audience, Senator Tim Scott, RS.C., also cited “White Marble” as an example of extravagance.

James Blair, Subdirftal of the White House, who was recently added to the Planning Commission, said Wednesday that he would send a letter to the Fed that requested any review to the project. His goal is to see if Powell was accurate in his testimony of Congress.

“He is telling the truth or not,” Blair told The News. “If you are telling the truth, you can try it simply by presenting all plans and revisions.”

Trump said Wednesday that he is “very unlikely” to try to fire Powell unless he considered “fraud.”

The attempt to eliminate Powell before his mandate in May 2026 as the end of the president could unleash a devastating financial setback, since financial markets expect the Fed, with its mission to stabilize prices and maximize employment, free themselves from White House policy. The perception that the Central Bank would use its powers to serve Trump’s political purposes could lead to higher interest rates on the debt and mortgages of the United States, instead of the president promised the decreases.

The 115 -year -old Fine Arts reviewed the renewal plans three times in 2020.

Duncan Stroik, who was appointed member of the commission in 2019 during Trump’s first mandate, “proposed an amendment that requested that the next presentation include an alternative design in Georgia’s white marble, the same material used for the five existing buildings along the north side of Constitution Avenue”, the minutes of a meeting of January 16, 2020, according to the meeting.

Stroik “does not believe that proposals proposed to historical buildings as large marble buildings on an important street,” the minutes added.

The Stroik amendment was rejected, but the commission did not completely support Fed’s plans. The architects presented new plans in May 2020, although they did not seem to satisfy Trump’s appointed.

Some commissioners “continued to object to addition as a glass box reminiscent of a commercial office building, shining at night, which would present an unacceptable contrast with the solid masonry architecture of the historic building in its monumental context,” the commission wrote in a May 2020 letter to a Fed official.

However, in July 2020, the architects of the Fed returned with a new proposal, which included “Georgia White Marble panels” that would be used for the “base, cornice and other details, consisting of the historic building,” said the acts of the commission.

Modern versus neoclassical designs

Stroik, now a professor of architecture at the University of Notre Dame, said in an interview that “stone buildings do not necessarily have to cost a fortune.” But he acknowledged that the commission had not discussed the expenses, which have not been part of their mission.

“If they wanted to play the cost game, make a marble facade and make the glass facade and compare the cost,” said Stroik. “And you know, they never did that.”

Krieger, the former commission member, said that the body’s discussions became much more controversial after the Trump administration eliminated several members and replaced them with Stroik and James McCrery, professor at the Catholic University, who, according to him, often echoed the feelings in an executive order of Trump at that time draft of that classic architecture.

“At that time, it was a fierce battle over how literal the original design should be,” Krieger said. “Normally, that attitude adds costs to the construction project.” McCrery declined to comment.

Trump issued the executive order in December 2020, which criticized modernist architecture and expressed a preference for “beautiful” classic buildings with more traditional designs. Biden revoked the order, and Trump returned to issue her the first day of her second term.

The Commission did not completely approve the FED project until September 2021, after McCrery and another Trump designated, Justin Shubow, had been eliminated by the then President Joe Biden.

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News Seung Min Kim writer contributed to this report.