The Fed is renovating its Washington headquarters for the first time since it was built nearly a century ago, a project approved in 2017 during Trump’s first term. But its cost has ballooned to $2.5 billion — and the White House is seeking to cast it as yet another example of rampant “waste, fraud and abuse” perpetrated by the elites.

The president’s participation in a tour of the Fed had the makings of a public relations disaster for the central bank. But by Friday, the president was praising Powell.