Trump meets with Powell at Federal Reserve amid push to cut interest rates

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: well thank you very much we're looking at the construction and we're with the chairman as you know and we're just taking a look at what's happening and it's a it's a tough construction job they're building basements where they didn't exist or expanding them and a lot of very expensive work there's no question about it and Tim has been with me for a long time in charge of the [00:00:25] Speaker 2: committee and these one of the reasons I wanted to see it was the overruns of the expenses one to figure out why so we take it a look and it looks like it's [00:00:36] Speaker 1: about 3.1 billion went up a little bit or a lot so the 2.7 is now 3.1 and I'm not [00:00:44] Speaker 3: aware of that yeah it just came out yeah I haven't heard that from anybody in the [00:00:48] Speaker 1: Fed [00:00:54] Speaker 3: our note said about 3.1 as well 3.1 3.2 this came from us yes I don't know who does that are you including the martin renovation you just had our entire capital yeah you just that you just added in a third building is what that is that's a third building it's it's a building that's being built no it's been it was built five years ago we finished [00:01:16] Speaker 1: martin five years ago it's part of the overall so so we're going to take a look we're going to see we're going to see what's happening uh and it's got a long way do you expect any more additional crossovers don't expect them [00:01:32] Speaker 3: we're we're ready for them but we we have a little bit of a reserve that we may use but no we don't expect to be finished in 2027 [00:01:40] Speaker 1: um we're well along as you can see uh nice to take these off every once in a while when we're not [00:01:47] Speaker 4: under too much danger uh so any questions mr president does the issue give you any as a real estate developer what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget uh generally speaking what [00:02:01] Speaker 3: would i do i'd fire them do you think you think mr president wants to do that well i'm here just [00:02:07] Speaker 1: really with the chairman he's showing us around showing us the work and so i don't want to get that i don't want to be personal i just uh would like to see it get finished and in many ways it's too bad it started but it did start and uh it's been under construction for a long time it'll be it's going to be a real long time because it looks like it's got a long way to go yes sir so mr president are [00:02:31] Speaker 3: there things the chairman can say to you today that would make you back off some of the earlier [00:02:36] Speaker 1: criticism well i'd love him to lower interest rates but other than that what can i tell you uh the country is doing really well i just briefed the chairman on the deal we made with japan japan is putting up 550 billion dollars in order to lower their tariffs a little bit that way they have a little bit lower tariff and they also opened their country to free trade which nobody thought was even a possibility and uh we get a zero tariff in the free trade we don't pay tariffs and they're going to pay 15 on everything they send into our country so it's great but they put up uh as you could call it seed money let's call it seed money you can call it anything you want but it's uh five it's a total of 550 billion dollars so nobody thought any of that was possible and it's wonderful and we're doing pretty well with the european union likewise and we have some others they're all really big and our country's going to make a lot of money we would be helped if interest rates would come down but we're going to see how the board rules on that soon i'd love to see them come down a lot but uh we have a country that's uh thriving uh we had a dead country one year ago today we have the hottest country anywhere in the world and we'll get this one finished thank you all right just listening in there to [00:03:54] Speaker 2: president trump talking about this what he mentioned with their jerome powell about some of these conversations that trade deal with japan but also the upcoming fed reserve meeting next week it's unlikely though that the fed going to be dropping rates you also said and heard there just a real candid moment talking about president trump saying that price tag increased to 3.1 billion dollars fed reserve chair jerome powell refuting that saying it was a different building entirely we're also getting this a live picture there as the tour continues on you can see parts of this the facade of this fed reserve building being worked on renovations restorations in place as president trump and his allies say a 2.5 billion dollar renovation of the fed headquarters and a building a neighboring building reflects an institution run amok the fed allowed reporters to tour the building before the tourism visit by trump who in the real estate career has bragged about his lavish spending on architectural uh different ventures there the visit is an attempt to further ratchet up pressure on jerome powell whom the republican president has relentlessly attacked for not cutting borrowing costs dubbing him too late trump's criticisms have put the fed historically independent institution under a harsh spotlight undermining its independence could reduce the fed's ability to calm financial markets and stabilize the u.s economy on thursday reporters wound through cement mixers front loaders and plastic pipes as they got a close-up view of the active construction site that encompasses the fed's historic headquarters known uh as that building a second building across the street at 20th street in washington fed staff who declined to be identified said the greater security requires rising material costs and tariffs and the need to comply with the historic preservation measures drove up the cost of the project which was budgeted in 2022 to be 1.9 billion dollars this according to reporting from the associated press