Recent weeks have seen government officials including Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte call for Powell, whose term as Fed chair ends in May of next year, to resign from his position.
Last week, Trump used a post on Truth Social to call for Powell to step down, linking to a news article referencing Pulte’s view that the Fed chair should be investigated for swelling renovation costs at the central bank’s headquarters.
Those costs have ballooned to $2.5 billion, prompting Powell to pen a July 3 to Sen. Tim Scott mentioning the renovation as one among “important issues” Fed and Senate staffers intended to discuss.
Pulte said Scott had contacted Powell on June 24 about surging renovation costs but questioned the timing of his reply. “Why would he send it on July 3rd, right before the holiday?” he wrote in an X post.
Powell, who was installed as Fed chair during the first Trump presidency, has been a frequent subject of the president’s ire as the central banks continues to hold off on rate cuts while assessing the impact to the US economy of the ongoing global tariff war.