President Donald Trump said former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should resign from the central bank's Board of Governors over findings the central bank mismanaged the renovation of its headquarters.
“The Building is over budget, at a Record Setting rate and, at a minimum, ‘Too Late' Powell should be forced to resign from the Board,” the president posted Wednesday on social media, using a derisive nickname he's long used for Powell.
Trump's remarks came after the Fed's internal watchdog, in a report released Wednesday, found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and didn't identify any “administrative misconduct” connected to the $2.4 billion project.
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Nonetheless, the report outlined a series of management missteps that caused the project's cost to balloon from the initial estimates of $1.3 billion 2020.
The president said he had directed Attorney General Todd Blanche to study the inspector general's report “and make a determination as to what to do.”
During Powell's tenure leading the central bank, the president repeatedly criticized him over monetary policy and used the Fed's headquarters renovation as a cudgel against him. Powell resisted Trump's efforts to push him out of office, including threats to fire him. He also broke with tradition when he decided to remain at the Fed as a governor after his second term as chair expired in May. His term as a governor runs to January 2028.
“This is Jerome Powell's fault, and he should be forced to resign, IMMEDIATELY! If he doesn't resign, he should be sued, at the highest level, by the United States Government, for either corruption or incompetence, both of which are completely unacceptable,” Trump posted.
A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.
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The renovation of the central bank's Washington headquarters has long been a flashpoint between the Fed and the Trump administration as the president pushed for lower interest rates last year. Near the start of 2026 it prompted a controversial investigation with the Department of Justice pursuing a potential indictment against Powell. Wednesday's report appeared to put to rest the prospect for criminal charges.
“At no point during our evaluation did we find reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred requiring a referral to the US Attorney General in accordance with the Inspector General Act,” the Fed's Office of Inspector General said.
The report did, however, point to multiple management failures.
The watchdog found the Fed's board didn't act on failings linked to cost overruns on a previous project and didn't implement a recommendation to impose a stated cost limitation. It also didn't ask for a construction cost estimate.
As recently as July, four years after the project began and after tenders had been awarded, the Fed had not established a guaranteed maximum price. Other issues highlighted by the OIG included substantial cost increases due to a lack of bids for some work and internal governance that, according to the report, wasn't equipped to run a project of this magnitude and complexity.
Design changes, site conditions and inflation were other factors cited by the OIG.
In a response included with the report, Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said the central bank would implement its recommendations and that the General Services Administration, which helps manage federal government buildings, will become project executive, and work with the central bank to finish the project, reporting to the Board of Governors and to Warsh.
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“There are important lessons to be learned, and those lessons, combined with your conclusions and with recommendations from GSA, will have permanent value for our successors on the Board of Governors,” Warsh wrote in a letter to Michael Horowitz, the IG who was appointed to the job by Powell in June 2025.
The Fed will also engage an independent auditor to scrutinize all awarded costs to date, Warsh said.
While Trump didn't threaten to dismiss Powell, the response highlights continued White House pressure to re-shape the Fed's policy-making board, said Mark Spindel, founder of Potomac River Capital and a co-author of a book on the Fed.
“Trump's frustration with Powell is unbounded as is his desire to control the Federal Reserve,” Spindel said. “Nevertheless, there are political actors, Congress and the courts that have supported the Fed and will continue to do so in the face of Trump's unrelenting pressure.”
Fed governors are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. A provision in the Federal Reserve Act bars presidential removal of governors except “for cause.”
Kathryn Judge, a Columbia University law professor who studies the Fed, noted the OIG report makes little mention of the role Powell played in overseeing the renovation.
“There is no easy answer to how much time the Fed chair should spend on this type of oversight given the many other obligations on his plate,” Judge said.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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