Trump news at a glance: Jerome Powell tackles inflation of White House figures on HQ upgrades

Hardhats and bad math as Fed chief shows president's complaint about $3.1bn cost has been jacked up with old spending. Key US politics stories from 24 July 2025

It looks like it's about $3.1bn - it went up a little bit or a lot," said Donald Trump, handing Jerome Powell a piece of paper as they stood amid construction at the US Federal Reserve's Washington HQ. The usually unflappable Fed chief looked irritated, closed his eyes and shook his head. I am not aware of that," said Powell.

Powell scanned the paper and pointed out the figure wrongly included the cost of renovations for a different Fed building that was done five years ago. It's not new," said Powell.