Latest news with #FederalReserveBuilding
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Body Language During Awkward Exchange With Jerome Powell Spoke Volumes, Experts Say
President Donald Trump's visit to the Federal Reserve this week produced some awkward soundbites. But body language experts think there were several nonverbal moments between Trump and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that spoke volumes. Even though presidents rarely visit the politically independent central bank, Trump on Thursday toured the building, which is being renovated. Trump and members of his administration have been publicly lambasting Powell for months over the Fed's unwillingness to lower interest rates. The president has previously called on Powell to resign before his term ends in May 2026, and he's referred to the Fed chair as a 'numbskull.' Furthermore, Trump had criticized the Fed's renovation of two historic buildings prior to his visit on Thursday. His administration has accused Powell of mismanaging the project, with Trump calling the renovations 'disgraceful,' The Associated Press reported. On Thursday, Trump stood next to Powell at the construction site and told reporters that the cost of the renovations amounted to approximately $3.1 billion, saying it 'went up a little bit — or a lot' while Powell shook his head in disagreement. Trump then insisted his numbers were correct as he took out a piece of paper to confirm the costs. But when Powell saw the paper, he pointed out that the president was incorrectly factoring in the price of renovations on a third building that had been completed five years prior. 'Oh, you're including the Martin renovation? You just added in a third building,' Powell said. 'That's a third building.'' 'Well, I know, but it's a building that's being built,' Trump responded. 'No. It was built five years ago,' Powell corrected him. 'We finished Martin five years ago ... It's not new.' Trump signaled to reporters following the tour that he would not be seeking to fire Powell, saying he didn't think it would be 'necessary' and that he believes the Fed chair is 'going to do the right thing,' he said, per the AP. But people online have still had a lot to say about the cringey tour. So we talked to body language experts, and they say there's a lot more to take away from the president's visit to the Federal Reserve on Thursday. Powell's body language said a lot during his back-and-forth with Trump over renovation costs. Patti Wood, a body language and nonverbal communication expert and author of 'SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma,' said that before Trump provided his $3.1 billion figure, Powell's shoulders were drooping slightly, with his mouth in a 'tight downward frown.' 'He knows something bad is coming,' she told HuffPost. She later noted that after Trump shared his estimate, Powell 'immediately and dramatically' turned his head to Trump, gave him a 'razor sharp glare of anger' and then rapidly shook his head 'no.' 'This is fascinating, as very few people actually shake their heads ['no'] when Trump makes a false statement, making what would typically be a rather innocuous back-and-forth head shake an indication of Powell's personal confidence,' she said. Wood also noted that while shaking his head, Powell closed his eyes for 'longer than three seconds,' which she explained is called an 'eye shutter.' 'Eye shutter is a subconscious nonverbal cue that someone gives when they want to block out information,' she said. Karen Donaldson, a communication and body language expert, also noted that Powell had occasionally closed his eyes during that moment, and she said that gesture, coupled with shaking his head 'no,' communicates disagreement or disapproval. 'There is another moment where Powell had a strong response… we see it when he pulls his head and neck area back and slightly faces Trump, a gesture that signals someone being caught off guard and quickly distancing themselves,' she told HuffPost. She later added that both Powell and Trump at one point stopped facing each other and faced forward. 'It displayed a bit of a standoff,' she said. Trump removing his hard hat while Powell was speaking was telling, experts say. After Trump and Powell's back-and-forth over the renovation costs, the president asked Powell if he expected any 'additional cost overruns,' to which Powell replied: 'Don't expect them. We're ready for them. We have a little bit of a reserve that we may use, but no, we don't. Expect to be finished in 2027; we're well along, as you can see.' As Powell neared the end of his response, Trump removed his hard hat and said: 'Nice to take these off every once in a while, when we're not under too much danger.' Traci Brown, an author and body language expert, told HuffPost that Trump was signaling at that moment that he was showing 'he's in charge.' 'Nothing has changed around him, but suddenly it's safe,' she observed. Wood said that she believes it was a signal that Trump was done interacting. 'He said his piece, and now he can take off his costume and be done,' she said. 'It also serves as a way of directing attention away from Powell and back on himself, as it's a large, sweeping motion.' Donaldson noted that Trump redirected the conversation to his hard hat, and his body language at that moment might have signaled disinterest in what was being said. And shortly after, when a reporter asked Trump what he would do as a real estate developer with a project manager who was over budget, the president said that, generally speaking, he'd 'fire 'em.' Brown noted that he dropped his tone at that moment, showing 'authority.' Here's what experts say Trump communicated when he made physical contact with Powell. At one point during the visit, a reporter asked Trump whether there's anything Powell could say that would make him walk back some of his previous criticism of the Fed chair. The president hit Powell's back in response and said in a comical tone: 'Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates; other than that, what can I tell you?' 'He shouts this out as he turns to look at Powell, then hits him hard on his back,' Wood said about the moment. 'That's not just a subtle subconscious weapon-like gesture. Trump hits him in a punishing way.' 'This kind of force is highly unusual,' she added. Donaldson thought the moment was a 'mix between a playful touch and a control touch.' 'The playful touch accompanied with a laugh to break the tension. As well as a control touch to move Powell in the direction in which he wanted to walk,' she said. Brown said that she believes that Trump 'slaps Powell on the back under the guise of being old friends.' 'But a hit is a hit, and that shows anger,' she said. 'And they move like they're gonna walk off. This is Trump regulating Powell's behavior. He's showing that he can move Powell wherever he wants to.' And when Trump again told reporters a minute or so later that he'd like to see interest rates come down, Brown said that Powell's lips were pursed 'in disagreement.' While analyzing this moment, Wood added, Trump was standing in front of Powell, blocking him from the media. 'In the background, you see a sad face, diminished Powell,' she said. Related... Jerome Powell Calls Out Trump For Using Fudged Figures For Fed Renovation Attack Trump Shreds Fed Chair Jerome Powell: 'Truly One Of My Worst Appointments' Trump Indicates He May Fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's rare Federal Reserve visit raises 2 questions
President Trump is headed to the Federal Reserve for a rare visit on Thursday, frustrated by renovation cost overruns and continuing his public criticism of Chair Jerome Powell. Yahoo Finance Washington Correspondent Ben Werschkul explains what Trump's presence could mean for the future of the project and Powell's remaining time in office. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. The president's scheduled to visit the Fed this afternoon. We know Ben, uh, the president not happy with cost overruns at that site, not happy with J. Powell in general. What, what do we expect today? Yeah, so this is a very unusual visit. The presidents usually don't go to the Federal Reserve. They don't Trump has never been there, according to any records we can find. Um, and obviously, as you mentioned, we're going to get a lot of Powell bashing from Trump today. We've, we've been here and we hear that on a daily basis from him. The sort of what, what to expect in terms of a shift here, other than the images we're going to see, which I think will be striking of, of this tour here are, are kind of two levels for markets. The top one is whether Trump is willing to shift his, his rhetoric on, on whether Jerome Powell has, has uh, has committed fraud based on these renovations, which have increased in costs. But, but the Federal Reserve has said that that's, this is sort of normal. This is a, a complicated project. Trump has said he's, he's signaling he's not going to fire Powell unless he has to leave for fraud, was the caveat he left. The question will be, as he comes out of this, out of this construction site, whether that rhetoric has changed. That would be a major change in terms of whether he's willing to entertain the, the legally questionable, um, effort to, to oust Powell. The second question here is, is really important for the Federal Reserve, less in terms of Powell staying in office or not, but is just sort of how much more complicated they're going to make this renovation. This is a complicated project. Um, though some of the aides expected to be with Trump are members of the National Capital Planning Commission, who are close allies to Trump, who are talking about whether they need Powell needs to get reapproval for this project. That would, that would be a huge headache. It would stop the project potentially and force reapproval and kind of let the remaining nine or 10 months of Powell's term be occupied by this. So it's kind of on those two levels, what we're watching for. But it's going to be a kind of wild scene with, with Trump and a, and a whole parade of aides there at the, they're at the Federal Reserve in about an hour's time. Related Videos Trump Says U.S. Has '50-50 Chance' of Reaching Trade Deal With EU Trump Is on the Mind of the FOMC, Goldman's Kaplan Says Fed's Next Move: BlackRock's Rogal, Wolfe Research's Roth Trump's trade remarks: 3 takeaways ahead of China negotiations Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
The moment Jerome Powell stood up to Donald Trump
Nobody will ever accuse president Donald Trump of rank sentimentality. Legions of wrestling fans across the United States mourned on Thursday morning the sudden death of Hulk Hogan , the original wrestling star who last July literally gave the shirt off his back to Trump during a memorable, vein-popping cameo at the Republican convention. But as ever, the national news cycle revolving around the president on Thursday was typically furious and strange. In Tallahassee, Florida, the US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, met Ghislaine Maxwell , the English socialite currently serving 20 years for her sex-trafficking crimes and procuring minors for Jeffrey Epstein . The purpose and details of the meeting, which lasted several hours, remain obscure. Trump took to his social media account to pay brief but heartfelt tribute to 'the Hulkster', whom he described as 'MAGA all the way'. Then, a few hours later, he appeared in a white construction-site hard hat in the company of Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve and of late the subject of choice Trumpian smackdowns, such as 'numbskull', 'moron' and 'very dumb'. The pair made unlikely bedfellows for a photo opportunity that quickly turned surreal. The headgear was occasioned by the tour of the Federal Reserve Building, which is undergoing a complete interior and exterior construction overhaul to the eye-watering tune of $2.7 billion. READ MORE Accompanying them was Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator who has been leading the White House argument that the renovation costs are crazily high and merit investigation. 'One of the reasons we wanted to see it,' Scott explained for the cameras – 'was the expenses overrun'. For some unknown and distracting reason, Scott himself was not wearing a white hard hat. Maybe he forsook that safety precaution in a valiant attempt to keep the costs down. But the moment took a theatrical turn when president Trump, producing with a flourish a sheet of paper from his breast pocket, said: 'So we are taking a look. It looks like it's about 3.1 billion. It went up a little bit.' Powell shook his head at this. 'Or a lot.' Trump continued. 'So, the $2.7 is now $3.1.' At this point, Powell's patience broke. 'I'm not aware of that, Mr president. I haven't heard that from anybody at the Fed.' 'It just came out,' president Trump replied, and handed him the paper. Federal Reserve chairs seldom make it to the top because of their charisma or magnetism. Their job demands the opposite. But this was Powell's moment, whether he wished for it or not. He looked perplexed as he read the paper before he saw what he was being presented with. 'It came from the Martin renovation. You just added in a third building, is what that is,' he said, handing his president the paper. 'It's a building that's being built,' Trump said. 'No. It was built five years ago.' The exchange wasn't disrespectful to the office of the presidency on Powell's part, nor withering. But the refusal to buckle made Scott's servility all the more vivid in the moment. It was a startling reminder of how few people in Donald Trump's orbit dare to contradict him. Opinion is split as to whether Powell, who was appointed by Donald Trump in 2017, will go down as a good Federal Reserve boss. He was heavily criticised in some quarters for being overly complacent during the post-pandemic inflationary acceleration. And there may be legitimate argument in Trump's argument that now, with the housing market in the United States dysfunctional, is the time to lower interest rates. But Powell's backbone and his belief that the Federal Reserve must remain independent to political pressure withstood this test. At times, Powell resembled a man sombrely considering the life choices that brought him to this moment: a presidential admonishment with both men dressed in the absurd headgear, like Lego figures brought to life. But he didn't buckle and the bizarre encounter closed with Trump jocularly slapping Powell on the back as he answered a reporter's question of what he would like to see happen. 'Well, I'd love him to lower interest rates. Other than that, what can I tell you?' Friends again? Who knew. But the conversation illustrates the unyielding strangeness of the atmosphere of the political summer in Washington. On Wednesday, House speaker Mike Johnson sent the representatives home for an extra week of recess. Republican senators were unhappy that their colleagues had not stuck around to legislate a little more. The general assumption was that Johnson broke early to avoid a vote, prompted by representative Thomas Massie's discharge petition, to release the Epstein files. Donald Trump presents Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell with what Mr Trump called a list of cost overruns for the Federal Reserve's $2.5 billion headquarters renovation project during a tour with Republican senator Tim Scott in Washington, DC. Photograph:'I've got to believe that there has to be more to it, because that almost seems to suggest if they go away for four or five – or how many weeks they're going to go away – that that problem is going to go away,' senator Thom Tillis, the North Carolina Republican, told reporters on Capitol Hill. 'Do you guys really think you're going to take your eyes off this issue come Labor Day? The answer is 'no'. So, I think it's a false premise assuming if they just walk away and avoid this vote, that it's not going to continue to be an issue.' A Fox News poll issued on Wednesday evening found that just 13 per cent of voters believed that the White House has been fully transparent with information related to the Epstein case, with 60 per cent Republicans in that category. And only 19 per cent stated that they have not been following the story at all. Alternatively, it is on the radar of 80 per cent of respondents. That statistic alone may explain why alternative scandal pushed by the White House this week – with Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, releasing new documents that purport to link former president Barack Obama to what has been presented as a hoax claim of Russian influence during the 2016 election won by Trump – has yet to gain traction. It's the old principle of maximum headroom. There are simply too many lurid plates spinning in the air above the White House for even the most willing Maga loyalists to keep their eyes and minds on. Sean Hannity, whose influential evening show on Fox is pro-Trumpian agit-prop, did his best to stoke enthusiasm on Wednesday night, during an hour in which the Epstein story did not feature at all. RussiaGate, Hannity assured his viewers, is 'a very real scandal surrounding a very real hoax that makes Watergate, frankly, look like a walk in the park'. It was an unfortunate comparison given that Watergate's denouement featured the resignation of a sitting president. But he nudged his viewership towards considering the gravity of this new set of documents released by the White House. 'Trump-Russia collusion was a fantasy, a complete lie, phoney, false conspiracy theory fed to Democrats and perpetuated by the state-run legacy media mob by the most corrupt administration in modern history. 'Now confirmation from the director of national intelligence that nearly a decade ago, the Obama White House reportedly used the full force of your federal government to delegitimatise the results of the 2016 election, malign the then president-elect Donald Trump before he even took office. 'And it was all based on lies cobbled together with an actual Russian disinformation dirty dossier bought and paid for by Donald Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton.' It could be that the idea of a prosecution against Obama is stretching the credulity of even the most devout believers in the Maga doctrine of deep-state conspiracies. Their reluctance to be distracted from the Epstein files is bordering on stubborn. Another Republican senator, Eric Schmitt, had this to say about the staying power of the issue. 'I think people are kind of curious and want more information, whether it's potentially testimony or the release of credible information. A lot of people support that. 'It also probably speaks to a larger issue: People feel like the government has lied to them for so long on certain things. People would like to land on the side of more transparency.' The failure to disclose the content of the Epstein files, as repeatedly promised by key Trump administration officials, represents a breach of that promised transparency to the Maga base. Meanwhile, the questions go on. On Thursday, chief among those was why the department of justice felt the need to send an official as senior as Todd Blanche, who was Donald Trump's personal attorney during his Manhattan 'hush money' trial last year, to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, who is clearly hoping to strike some sort of plea deal. 'The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,' Blanche wrote in a statement before confirming that another meeting would take place on Friday. It is unlikely that the intrigue and public fascination with the Epstein issue will disappear over the remainder of the summer. The scandal has taken on a momentum of its own. As Hulk Hogan used to ask in more innocent times: 'Whatcha gonna do when Hulk-a-mania runs wild on you?' For Donald Trump, the answer is to pull on a hard hat and explain nothing.
Mint
5 days ago
- Business
- Mint
‘America can afford anything': Trump says after clash with Fed Chair Powell over cost overruns in HQ renovations
Donald Trump sparred with the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, on Thursday during a rare presidential visit to the central bank's headquarters. However, hours later the US president posted on Truth Social, 'The cost overruns are substantial but, on the positive side, our Country is doing very well and can afford just about anything — Even the cost of this building! I'll be watching and, hopefully, adding some expertise.' Trump was continuing his campaign to pressure the Fed to cut interest rates and was visiting its Washington headquarters to view costly renovations he has suggested are tantamount to fraud. Having branded Powell a 'numbskull' for the Fed's recent decisions not to cut rates, Trump has turned up the pressure on Powell with criticism of the $2.5bn bill for renovating the Fed's historical buildings. Powell and Trump stood in hard hats inside the Fed's construction site. Urging the Fed chair to stand closer to him, Trump alleged that the bill for the renovations would now cost $3.1bn. 'It looks like it's about $3.1bn – it went up a little bit or a lot,' said Trump. The usually unflappable Powell looked visibly irritated, closed his eyes and shook his head. 'I am not aware of that,' said Powell. Handed a piece of paper by Trump, Powell scanned it and said the new figure included the cost of renovations for the Martin Building, a different Fed office that was renovated five years ago. 'It's not new,' said Powell. What Trump wrote on Truth Social: It was a Great Honor to tour the Renovation (and some new Construction!) of the Federal Reserve Building with Chairman Jerome Powell, Senator Tim Scott, and others. It's got a long way to go, would have been much better if it were never started, but it is what it is and, hopefully, it will be finished ASAP. The cost overruns are substantial but, on the positive side, our Country is doing very well and can afford just about anything — Even the cost of this building! I'll be watching and, hopefully, adding some expertise. As everyone knows, I renovated the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue, and it was a roaring SUCCESS. The total Construction cost was a small fraction of the Fed Building's cost, and it is many times the size. With all of that being said, let's just get it finished and, even more importantly, LOWER INTEREST RATES!
