In the wake of ongoing attacks and insults from the Executive Branch against the central bank, the Trump administration is making unsubstantiated claims that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has hired a public relations agency specializing in crisis communications.
This story line took root on July 19 when White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair responded on X to a post by Associated Press reporter Chris Rugaber on the use of marble in the renovations at the Federal Reserve headquarters. Rugaber wrote, “Our story reports that Trump appointees to the Commission of Fine Arts in 2020 pushed the Fed’s architects to use more marble in their renovated buildings, and now Trump officials cite ‘white marble’ as a sign of extravagance.”
The article in question noted that Duncan Stroik, a 2019 Trump appointee to the Commission on Fine Arts, “proposed an amendment requesting that the next submission include an alternative design in white Georgia marble, the same material used for the five existing buildings along the north side of Constitution Avenue.” Stroik’s request was cited in the minutes of a January 2020 commission meeting.
Blair responded to Rugaber by stating, “Blaming Trump appointees for the marble looks like a failed attempt at narrative shift by some 2nd rate PR firm hired by Powell. Too Late just testified in front of Senate Banking on June 25th that No New Marble was used. Again we must ask, did he lie to Congress?”
Blair offered no proof that the Fed has hired an outside public relations agency.
Blair began to reinforce the crisis PR story yesterday on X by posting, “MANY media & insider types are saying that the Fed HAS hired a crisis comms firm – as suspected. They should save the money. We aren’t even working hard yet.” However, Blair did not identify any of the “media & insider types” affirming this story – a Google News search failed to find any independent media coverage affirming that the Fed hired an outside agency.
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte followed Blair on X by posting, “I hear Jerome Powell has hired a crisis PR firm.” Pulte did not acknowledge that he was parroting Blair’s post. Pulte posted another message on X that showed him outside of the construction work at of the Fed’s headquarters, claiming that the central bank was spending $2.5 billion “just on concrete and steel” – Pulte did not acknowledge the majority of the cost overruns on the project were due to extensive environmental remediations involving asbestos and contaminated soil at the 1930s-era headquarters.
