President Donald Trump strode through the Federal Reserve’s construction site on Thursday, wearing a white hard hat as he inspected scaffolding and stacks of plywood. At his side was Jerome Powell, the central bank’s chair whom Trump would love to replace.

The two men stood shoulder to shoulder in front of reporters as Trump claimed the renovation had ballooned to $3.1 billion. Powell closed his eyes and shook his head. “I haven’t heard that from anybody,” he said. The figure, he explained, included a separate project completed years earlier. Trump waved it off, joking that as a real estate developer, he would fire the project manager if they overspent.