Trump spends two minutes ranting about pens while attacking Fed chair Jerome Powell

WorldPolitics
27 Mar 2026 • 7:05 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

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Donald Trump spent two minutes ranting about pens whilst attacking Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

Speaking during a cabinet meeting on Thursday (26 March), the US president criticised the Federal Reserve’s renovation project, which Trump claimed had ballooned to over $3 billion. He said that he believes he could have done the whole project for $25 million.

He then launched into an analogy involving pens, where he picked up an “inexpensive” pen which “writes well”. Mr Trump then explained that when he arrived at the White House, he was given many expensive “gorgeous” pens to use.

However, he said that the fancier pens did not write well. ”I'm signing and there's no ink in the pen and it costs a thousand dollars.”

He later further explained his comparison, stating: “I just saw the pen sitting there and thought this was an example of how $25 million spent by me at the Federal Reserve building would be a better job than $4 billion that they’re spending.”

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