Donning white hard hats for their tour of the Federal Reserve’s construction site on Thursday, President Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell almost immediately began squabbling over the cost of the central bank’s building renovations.

Amid an escalating campaign by the Trump administration against Federal Reserve Chair Powell, an AI-generated letter made its rounds online.

There was also asbestos, and toxic contamination in the soil. All of that, combined with rising costs of materials following pandemic shortages and inflation, pushed up the cost of the renovations. A project with an estimated budget of $1.

A sprawling $2.5 billion project to renovate the central bank’s headquarters in Washington has become the focal point of attacks from the Trump administration.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Azoria Capital's lawsuit claims that the bank's closed-door meetings violate the Government in the Sunshine Act of 1976.