By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump may have found a way to achieve his goal of removing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell: by accusing him of mismanaging the U.S. central bank’s $2.5 billion building renovation project.

The push comes after a monthslong campaign by Trump to try to rid himself of the politically independent central banker, who has resisted the Republican president’s calls to slash interest rates out of concerns about the administration’s tariffs sparking higher levels of inflation.

The Supreme Court recently signaled that Trump can’t fire Powell simply because the president disagrees with him on interest rates. But legally he could do so “for cause,” such as misconduct or dereliction of duty.

Trump has seized on that provision, indicating that Powell’s handling of an extensive renovation project on two Fed buildings in Washington could be grounds to take the unprecedented and possibly legally dubious step of firing him.

The project has been underway for years, going back to Trump’s first term. But it only recently caught the White House’s attention.

Last week, when asked if he thought the building renovation was a “firing offense,” Trump said, “I think it is.” But he later added that it was “highly unlikely” that he would ultimately remove Powell before his term expires in May 2026.

The risk of the Fed losing its political independence could undermine America’s financial markets, possibly leading to a meltdown in stocks and investors charging a premium to lend to the U.S. economy.

Here’s what to know:

Ousting Powell risks setting off market panic

The Fed chair has been an obstacle in Trump’s efforts to gain total control over the executive branch.

Powell and his board have the dual mandate of maximizing employment and keeping prices stable, a task that can require them to make politically unpopular moves such as raising interest rates to hold inflation in check. The general theory is that keeping the Fed free from the influence of the White House — other than for nominations of Fed officials — allows it to fulfill its mission based on what the economy needs, instead of what a politician wants.

An attempt to remove Powell from his job before his term ends would undercut the Fed’s long-standing independence from day-to-day politics and could lead to higher inflation, higher interest rates and a weaker economy.

FILE – Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell arrives before a Senate Committee on Banking hearing, June 25, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

The Fed’s main headquarters is over 90 years old

The Fed says its main headquarters, known as the Marriner S. Eccles building, was in dire need of an upgrade because its electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems, among others, are nearly obsolete and some date back to the building’s construction in the 1930s.

The renovation will also remove asbestos, lead and other hazardous elements and update the building with modern electrical and communications systems. The H-shaped building, named after a former Fed chair in the 1930s and ’40s, is located near some of Washington’s highest-profile monuments and has references to classical architecture and marble in the facades and stonework. The central bank is also renovating a building next door that it acquired in 2018.

The Fed says there has been periodic maintenance to the structures but adds this is the first “comprehensive renovation.”

The renovation costs have ballooned over the years

Trump administration officials have criticized the Fed over the project’s expense, which has reached $2.5 billion, about $600 million more than was originally budgeted.

Like a beleaguered homeowner facing spiraling costs for a remodeling project, the Fed cites many reasons for the greater expense. Construction costs, including for materials and labor, rose sharply during the inflation spike in 2021 and 2022. More asbestos needed to be removed than expected. Washington’s local restrictions on building heights forced it to build underground, which is pricier.

In 2024, the Fed’s board canceled its planned renovations of a third building because of rising costs.

The Fed says the renovations will reduce costs “over time” because it will be able to consolidate its roughly 3,000 Washington-based employees into fewer buildings and will no longer need to rent as much extra space as it does now.

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White House budget director calls renovations ‘ostentatious’

Russ Vought, the administration’s top budget adviser, wrote Powell a letter that said Trump is “extremely troubled” about the Fed’s “ostentatious overhaul” of its facilities.

The Fed’s renovation plans call for “rooftop terrace gardens, VIP private dining rooms and elevators, water features, premium marble, and much more,” Vought said in last week’s letter.

Powell has disputed the claims, which were given wide circulation in a paper issued by the Mercatus Center, a think tank at George Mason University, in March 2025. The paper was written by Andrew Levin, an economist at Dartmouth College and former Fed staffer.

“There’s no VIP dining room,” Powell said last month during a Senate Banking Committee hearing. “There’s no new marble. … There are no special elevators. There are no new water features. … And there’s no roof terrace gardens.”

Some of those elements were removed from initial building plans submitted in 2021, the Fed says.

White House also takes issue with the Fed reducing its renovation costs

The Fed’s changes to its building plans have opened it up to another line of attack: White House officials suggest the Fed violated the terms of the approval it received from a local planning commission by changing its plans.

In its September 2021 approval of the project, the National Capital Planning Commission said it “Commends” the Fed for “fully engaging partner federal agencies.” But because the Fed changed its plans, the administration is indicating it needed to go back to the commission for a separate approval.

Essentially, White House officials are saying Powell is being reckless with taxpayer money because of the cost of the renovation, but they are also accusing him of acting unethically by scaling back the project to save money.

James Blair, the White House deputy chief of staff whom Trump named to the commission, said in a post on X that Powell’s June congressional testimony “leads me to conclude the project is not in alignment with plans submitted to & approved by the National Capital Planning Commission in 2021.”

Blair said he intends to review materials from the Fed on how the approved 2021 renovation plans have changed and circulate a letter among his colleagues on the commission that would go to Fed officials.

The Fed has asked for an independent review of the project

The central bank says, in a series of frequently asked questions on its website, that it is “not subject to the direction” of the commission and has only complied with its directives voluntarily.

Instead, the Fed said it is accountable to the Senate and the House of Representatives and is overseen by an independent inspector general, not the White House. Powell has asked the inspector general to review the costs of the renovation project.

By SUDHIN THANAWALA and GARY FIELDS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A migrant from Venezuela deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador has taken the first step toward suing the U.S. government, saying he was wrongly sent to a notorious prison in the Central American country where he was beaten by guards and kept from contacting his family or an attorney.

Neiyerver Adrián Leon Rengel, 27, has filed a claim for $1.3 million with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, his attorneys with Democracy Defenders Fund said Thursday. Rengel is among more than 250 migrants from Venezuela sent to El Salvador in March, out of the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Immigration agents took Rengel into custody on March 13 in the parking lot of his apartment in Irving, Texas, wrongly claiming his tattoos reflected an affiliation with Tren de Aragua, according to his claim. He had entered the U.S. in 2023. He worked as a barber and was scheduled to appear before an immigration judge in 2028.

Homeland Security said in an email that Rengel was a “confirmed associate” of the Tren de Aragua gang — though it did not specify how it reached that conclusion — who had entered the country illegally. It called his claims a fake “sob story.”

“President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow foreign terrorist enemies to operate in our country and endanger Americans,” the email said. It added, “We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”

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At El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, Rengel said guards hit him with fists and batons and, on one occasion, viciously beat him after taking him to an area of the prison without cameras.

Rengel was sent to Venezuela earlier this month as part of a prisoner exchange deal. His attorneys say he is living with his mother and is “terrified” to return to the United States.

They are seeking compensation for emotional and psychological injuries.

A federal judge ruled in June that the Trump administration must give some of the migrants sent to the prison in El Salvador a chance to challenge their deportations.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg said the people hadn’t been able to formally contest the removals or allegations that they were members of Tren de Aragua. He ordered the administration to work toward giving them a way to file those challenges.

The judge wrote that “significant evidence” had surfaced indicating that many of the migrants were not connected to the gang “and thus were languishing in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.”

At a hearing on Thursday, an attorney for the Trump administration told Boasberg it would not immediately bring the migrants sent from El Salvador to Venezuela as part of the prisoner exchange back to the U.S.

Trump officials planned to await the outcome of other court cases before deciding whether to allow the migrants to return, U.S. Department of Justice attorney Tiberius Davis said.

Boasberg had ordered the administration to turn planes carrying the accused gang members around, but the demand was ignored. Rengel’s attorneys say he was on one of those planes.

The judge has found probable cause that the administration committed contempt of court.

Boasberg said Thursday he planned to expand his contempt probe to include a recent whistleblower complaint that claims a top Justice Department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members.

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for — attempting to create clearer national standards for the NCAA’s name image and likeness program.

The move comes amid a dramatic increase in the money flowing into and around college athletics. It also follows key court victories won by current and former athletes angry that they were barred for decades, both from earning income based on their celebrity and from sharing in the billions of revenue they helped generate.

Facing a growing number of state laws undercutting its authority, the NCAA in July 2021 cleared the way for athletes to cash in with name, image and likeness deals with brands and sponsors.

That came mere days after a 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court that found the NCAA cannot impose caps on education-related benefits schools provide to their athletes because such limits violate antitrust law.

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Trump’s action directs the secretary of labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of collegiate athletes through guidance or rules “that will maximize the educational benefits and opportunities provided by higher education institutions through athletics.”

The NCAA’s embrace of NIL deals set the stage for another massive change that took effect July 1: The ability of schools to begin paying millions of dollars to their own athletes, up to $20.5 million per school over the next year. The $2.8 billion House settlement shifts even more power to college athletes, who have also won the ability to transfer from school to school without waiting to play.

The NCAA has been lobbying for several years for limited antitrust protection to keep some kind of control over this new landscape — and avoid more crippling lawsuits — but a handful of bills have gone nowhere in Congress.

The 1,100 universities that comprise the NCAA have insisted for decades that athletes are students who cannot be considered anything like a school employee.

This stance has long been a part of the amateur model at the heart of college athletics, but that model is rapidly being replaced by a more professional structure fed by money that is coming from donors, brands and now the schools themselves.

Some coaches have even suggested collective bargaining is a potential solution to the chaos they see.

It is a complicated topic: Universities would become responsible for paying wages, benefits, and workers’ compensation and schools and conferences have insisted they will fight any such move in court (some already have).

While private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state and it’s worth noting that virtually every state in the South has “right to work” laws that present challenges for unions.

By SARA CLINE, Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A woman detained at a citizenship appointment in May will not be deported following a judge’s ruling this week barring her removal, but her Marine Corps veteran husband said she remains in custody at immigration detention center in Louisiana.

For two months, Paola Clouatre, 25, has been held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement complex in Monroe, waiting to learn whether she will be allowed to remain in the country. Once a week she is allowed to see her husband, who makes the eight-hour roundtrip trek from Baton Rouge so the mother can breastfeed their 4-month-old baby and see their 2-year-old son.

Clouatre, a Mexican national, entered the U.S. seeking asylum with her mother more than a decade ago. After marrying her husband in 2024 and applying for her green card to legally live and work in the U.S., she learned that ICE had issued an order for her deportation in 2018 after her mother failed to appear at an immigration hearing.

In May, during a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services appointment in New Orleans, a staffer asked about the deportation order. Clouatre explained that she was trying to reopen her case, with her husband telling The Associated Press that he and his wife were trying “to do the right thing.” Soon after, officers arrived and handcuffed Clouatre.

Adrian Clouatre has spent nearly eight weeks fighting for his wife’s release, remaining optimistic that their family would soon be reunited outside the detention facility located nearly 180 miles from their south Louisiana home.

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On Wednesday, they got word that a judge in California — the original jurisdiction for Paola Clouatre’s case — had stayed the order for her removal.

Adrian Clouatre welcomed the decision. He said their lawyer is preparing paperwork seeking his wife’s release, though it’s not guaranteed and could take weeks even in the best of scenarios.

“I just keep telling our son, “‘Mom’s coming home soon,’” Adrian Clouatre said.

Meanwhile, the couple’s lawyer is working to get the Baton Rouge mother’s green card process back on track, The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune reported. While the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has already ruled that the couple has a valid marriage, the process has been held up amid the legal battle.

The Baton Rouge mother is one of tens of thousands of people in custody as part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to remove millions of people who are in the country without legal permission.

Clouatre said GOP U.S. Sen. John Kennedy has also requested that the Department of Homeland Security release his wife from custody. Kennedy’s office did not return AP’s emailed request for comment.

Kennedy is not the first Louisiana Republican to get involved in an immigration case in the reliably red state. Earlier this month, An Iranian mother, who was detained by ICE after living in the U.S. for nearly five decades, was released following advocacy from Republican U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.