KEY POINTS:
- Trump appointees pushed for white Georgia marble in Fed renovation during 2020, according to AP News
- Fed Chair Powell requested inspector general review of $2.5 billion project weeks ago, CNBC reports
- Powell testified to Congress that no new marble was being added, only damaged marble replaced, per NPR
President Donald Trump’s criticism of marble finishes in the Federal Reserve’s headquarters renovation overlooks a key detail: his own appointees advocated for the extensive use of marble during his first term, according to AP News reporting on July 18, 2025.
As the Trump administration intensifies its campaign against Fed Chair Jerome Powell over the central bank’s $2.5 billion renovation project, documents show that Trump appointees to the Commission of Fine Arts specifically requested white Georgia marble be incorporated into the building design in 2020.
According to AP News, Fed architects originally planned glass walls to symbolize transparency, but three Trump appointees to the Commission of Fine Arts “felt marble best fit the building’s historic character.” The Commission of Fine Arts, a 115-year-old body that advises the federal government on architecture, reviewed the Fed’s renovation plans three times in 2020.
Duncan Stroik, appointed to the commission by Trump in 2019, “proposed an amendment requesting that the next submission include an alternative design in white Georgia marble,” according to meeting minutes from January 16, 2020, cited by AP News. By July 2020, Fed architects returned with revised plans that included “panels of white Georgia marble” for the “base, cornice, and other details,” AP News reported.
CNBC reported on July 14, 2025, that Powell requested an inspector general review of the renovation project “a few weeks ago,” before the latest White House attacks. The project, approved by the Fed board in 2017 with construction beginning in 2021, has seen its budget increase from $1.9 billion in 2019 to $2.5 billion, according to CNBC.
In response to mounting criticism, Powell sent a letter Thursday to Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, defending the renovation. CNN Business reported on July 17, 2025, that Powell clarified that some controversial features had been eliminated “in the years since the initial design proposal.”
During congressional testimony last month, Powell directly addressed the marble controversy. “There’s no new marble,” Powell told the Senate Banking Committee, as reported by NPR on July 14, 2025. Powell explained they were “putting it back up” and would “have to use new marble where some of the old marble broke.”
The Washington Post reported on July 11, 2025, that Vought accused Powell of either lying to Congress about the renovation or grossly mismanaging it. The National Capital Planning Commission has started an inquiry into the project, according to the Washington Post.
The Fed posted a FAQ page on its website Friday defending the renovation, CNBC reported on July 12, 2025. According to Axios reporting on July 14, 2025, the Fed stated that “beginning in 2023, the Board made a small number of design changes to remove certain elements and added no new elements.”
NPR reported that unexpected conditions drove cost overruns, including “excess lead and asbestos, as well as inflation which has raised the cost of building projects nationwide.”
The controversy comes as Trump seeks ways to pressure Powell over interest rates. The Washington Post reported that Trump said Wednesday he was “highly unlikely” to fire Powell unless there was “fraud.”
Stroik, now a professor at the University of Notre Dame, told AP News that “stone buildings don’t necessarily have to cost a fortune” but acknowledged the commission never discussed expenses. “If they wanted to play the cost game, you do a marble facade and you do the glass facade and you compare the cost,” Stroik said, according to AP News. “And you know, they never did that.”
The renovation aims to modernize the Fed’s Depression-era headquarters, removing hazardous materials and updating antiquated systems, according to multiple sources.
