United States President Donald Trump arrived at the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in Washington to tour the site of a $2.5bn renovation of two historical buildings, which the White House criticises as overly costly and ostentatious, as tensions escalate between the administration and the independent overseer of the nation’s monetary policy.

Thursday’s rare presidential visit to the Fed is happening less than a week before the central bank’s 19 policymakers gather for a two-day rate-setting meeting, where they are widely expected to leave the US central bank’s benchmark interest rate in the 4.25-4.50 percent range.

Trump has repeatedly demanded that the Fed lower rates by 3 percentage points and has frequently raised the possibility of firing Fed Chairman Jerome Powell , though the p

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