Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought spelled out President Trump's public brawl with Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell in detail this morning.
But in underscoring the president's adamant support for lower interest rates — with which Powell so far disagrees — Vought also refused to say precisely what percentage of interest rates he and Trump would like.
"I'm not going to give you a percentage," the OMB chief told Newsmax. "I don't have any numbers for you. They need to be lower. I'm not the Fed.
"What the president said most recently is he wants interest rates lower ... obviously, it would be helpful for the country, for the economy, from a fiscal situation. We're getting to the point where our interest costs are not as high."
Vought, who spoke at a press breakfast in Washington D.C. hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, went on to say that the administration's chief complaint with Powell and his fellow Federal Reserve governors is "they are always late."
"They were late in the first term, late in the Biden administration," he told us. "I was one of the first people [to say this] - right about the time [former Secretary of the Treasury] Larry Summers was talking about it as well, looking at the spending that the Biden administration was doing and saying, 'This is going to cause inflation.' And it did."
Vought recalled that at the time, he, Summers, and others warned the increased spending would cause inflation, "the Fed called it transitory."
In elaborating on Trump's feud with Powell, Vought said the Fed chair and his fellow board of governors members "can't even do a building right … a million [dollars] over [budget] for their headquarters … you do a wrack up of all the biggest buildings in the world, it's approaching those levels. We can't afford that. It's just another example of Powell's mismanagement of the Fed and the president is concerned about it."
As for the future, Vought suggested stormy weather was ahead for Trump and Powell.
"On policy issues, the president has the right to talk about his policy views with regard to the Fed," he said. "The debate [about the cost of the Fed headquarters] is going to continue.
"We're hoping for answers. We're hoping for a site visit at the Fed and to just get answers to some of our questions. They either misled Congress or they need to go to the National Capital Planning Commission and have a reassessment of the project.
"These are important things we hope to get to the bottom of. We now have new commissioners, Will Sharf, Michael Blair, Stu Levenbach, who are going to ask tough questions on the commission."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.