Trump threatens to sue 'grossly incompetent' Fed leader over debunked numbers

Donald Trump gestures with Jerome Powell, his nominee to become chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve at the White House in Washington, U.S., November 2, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

President Donald Trump is threatening to sue Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell as higher consumer prices threaten the mid-terms.

“I am … considering allowing a major lawsuit against Powell to proceed because of the horrible, and grossly incompetent, job he has done in managing the construction of the Fed Buildings,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday. “Three billion dollars for a job that should have been a $50 million dollar fix up. Not good!”

Trump appears to be pushing the purported $3 billion renovation price tag weeks after Powell repeatedly corrected him before reporters.

“So, we're taking a look and it looks like it's about $3.1 billion,” Trump said in July while touring renovations of the Fed building. “It went up a little bit, or a lot, so the $2.7 [billion] is now 3.1 [billion]."

“I'm not aware of that,” said Powell. “I haven't heard that from anybody.”

“Yeah, it just came out,” Trump said, handing Powell a list from his pocket.

“Are you including the Martin [Building] renovation?” Powell asked after some exchange. “You just added in a third building, is what that is. That's a third building.”

“But it's a building that's being built,” Trump pointed out.

“No, it's been built. It was built five years ago,” Powell insisted. “We finished Martin five years ago.”

“—as part of the overall work,” Trump argued.

“No, it's not new.” Powell said.

Trump is sticking to his guns, despite being corrected, however. And he’s complaining of appointing Powell during his first administration.

“Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell must now lower the [interest] rate. [Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin] really gave me a ‘beauty’ when he pushed this loser,” Trump added. “The damage he has done by always being Too Late is incalculable.”

The Daily Beast reports Trump is irritated at Powell’s refusal to lower interest rates as the president’s own tariffs ramp up consumer prices this month.

“His attack on Tuesday came as the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) released that morning showed core inflation, which excludes food and energy, came in slightly hotter than expected and had its largest one month increase since January when the president took office,” the Daily Beast reports. “The CPI found core inflation was up 0.3 percent for last month and up 3.1 percent from a year ago, the largest annual increase since February.”

Read the full Daily Beast report at this link.