Washington
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The Federal Reserve, one of the most notoriously tight-lipped institutions in Washington, has been suddenly thrust into an unusual situation: a high-stakes public relations battle with the White House.
The central bank, under intense scrutiny from President Donald Trump and his allies, is quietly trying to mitigate any potentially inaccurate claims and attacks stemming from Trump’s upcoming Thursday afternoon tour of the Fed’s renovation site at its headquarters facing the National Mall.
The White House has seized on the Fed’s $2.5 billion construction project as a potential legal opening to oust Chair Jerome Powell, whom Trump has lambasted for months because the central bank has not lowered interest rates at all this year. The timing of the tour — amid mounting scrutiny over the president’s past relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein — may be a public relations maneuver of its own, designed to distract from the growing political scandal. Trump is set to join some of his top advisers to visit the Fed as he continues to publicly tear into Powell on social media.
But the Fed made a strategic play by hosting a tour for a handful of media outlets beforehand. It shows that the Fed is now embroiled in a crisis communications strategy battle with the White House.
“The Fed laid the groundwork behind the scenes with the media, and that’s exactly its longstanding playbook,” said Anne Marie Malecha, chief executive of Dezenhall Resources, a reputation and crisis management firm. “You’re not going to see the Fed take to Truth Social or engage with influencers, so I think this is as far out on a limb as we’re going to see an institution like the Fed go.”
The Fed declined to comment.
Notes from reporters who attended the morning tour detailed a noisy, active construction site with scaffolding, cement mixers and construction machines throughout. The notes said the Marriner S. Eccles building, one of the two being refurbished, now has some new upgrades for security purposes.
That includes blast-resistant windows and shear walls, which are big drivers of the building’s cost, according to Fed staff during the tour. These upgrades are meant to abide by the Department of Homeland Security’s highest level of security for federal buildings.
The account from reporters also noted that seating on the rooftop of the Eccles building was nixed in order to avoid the appearance of being an amenity, even though it would not have been expensive to include it, according to Fed staff.
Staff also noted during the tour that tariffs and higher costs for materials were big reasons for the cost overruns compared to estimates from 2018 and 2019. The project is expected to be finished by the fall of 2027, with a DC-based workforce of about 3,000 moving in through March 2028.
Despite the Fed’s attempts at being transparent about the project, administration officials have still harshly criticized the Fed for it, and may continue to do so after the tour. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described Trump’s public gripes with Powell as “working the refs” — a phrase in sports used when a player loudly protests a referee’s call to force him to reconsider.
“I think the building is just a sideshow,” David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution, told CNN’s Brian Todd. “It’s a way to get attention away from other problems that the president is facing.”
“They’re 7 years into a 9-year building project,” Wessel added. “It’s hardly been a secret. (It’s coming up now) because the president wants to make life miserable for Jay Powell.”
Trump’s attacks on Powell are nothing new: He levied the same gripes about the Fed chief — his own pick to helm the central bank — during his first term in office, too. But the attacks on Powell have grown in recent weeks, and Republicans have latched onto what was once a routine — albeit expensive — construction project for the Fed.
The Fed renovation may be a convenient foil for Trump as the administration is dealing with its own crisis communications battle, some communications experts say. The Justice Department’s handling of the so-called Epstein files has spurred outrage, even among some of Trump’s die-hard supporters. CNN this week unveiled newly uncovered archived video footage and photos shedding more light on Trump’s past relationship with Epstein.
“This administration is highly skilled at moving lawmakers, the media and the public to pay attention to issues and to take up causes that are beneficial to them. It’s a ‘look over there instead of here’ strategy,” Malecha said.
“Whiplash is often an effective strategy,” she said.
