President Trump Tours Fed Renovations
President Trump put on his old developer’s hat and paid a visit to the Federal Reserve’s under-renovation headquarters, clashing in a made-for-camera moment with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The tour comes following weeks of criticism from Trump over the costly renovation project and his calls for the Fed to lower interest rates.
The remodel began in 2019, with a $1.9 billion dollar budget. The president says the budget has now ballooned to $3.1 billion, although Fed Chair Powell disputes this figure, saying that President Trump added in the budget of a separate building not in the original $1.9 billion dollar budget. According to The New York Times, the project is “about $700 million over budget.”
When asked what Powell could do to ease tensions, Trump's response was simple: "I'd love them to lower interest rates."
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📺 Hunter Biden Dishes on Debate Debacle
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🚗 Tesla's Affordable Model Finally Arrives
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📊 By the Numbers
$10 Million - What Joe Biden earned for the rights to his presidential memoir, significantly less than Barack Obama's $60 million or Bill Clinton's $15 million in 2004 (over $20 million counting for inflation). President Biden's advance is comparable to George W. Bush's, who received $7 million in 2009, roughly the same as what Biden received in today's dollars when accounting for inflation.
$220 Million - Columbia University agreed to pay $220 million in fines to restore its canceled federal research funding after being stripped of $400 million in grants. The settlement requires the university to make structural changes to its Faculty Senate, discipline student protesters, and end certain DEI programs following last year's campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
1.6 - The U.S. fertility rate per woman in 2024, hitting an all-time low, according to new CDC data.
$8 Billion - The FCC approved the $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance. As part of the deal, the company will install an official to monitor bias at CBS's news division, signaling increased scrutiny of media operations.
