President Donald Trump’s budget chief on Thursday said that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell “has grossly mismanaged the Fed” and suggested he had misled Congress about a pricey and “ostentatious” renovation of the central bank’s headquarters.
The broadside by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought opened up a new front in Trump’s war of words against Powell.
Trump has repeatedly called on the Fed chairman to cut interest rates, without success. He reportedly has considered firing Powell and, more recently, publicly naming the chairman’s replacement months earlier than the end of Powell’s term next spring.
