President Trump and Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell got into a short back-and-forth on Thursday ahead of their tour of the central bank’s headquarters at Washington. The president caught Mr. Powell off-guard by claiming the Fed’s renovations were much more expensive than previously reported, because he included a separate renovation in the total cost. 

The White House announced Wednesday night that Mr. Trump would personally visit the Fed along with some of his top aides at the chairman of the Banking Committee, Senator Tim Scott. As they were getting ready to walk through the construction site, Messrs. Trump and Powell stopped briefly to talk to reporters. 

“We’re taking a look and it looks like it’s about $3.1 billion — it went up a little bit, or a lot” Mr. Trump said of the total cost. Before he could even finish the sentence, Mr. Powell began shaking his head. “The $2.7 [billion] is now $3.1 [billion.]”

The Fed chairman immediately cut in to say the president was wrong. “I’m not aware of that, Mr. President.”

“Yeah, it just came out,” Mr. Trump shot back, taking a piece of paper from his jacket pocket and handing it to Mr. Powell. 

“This came from us?” Mr. Powell asked after putting on his reading glasses with an incredulous look on his face. Mr. Scott chimed in to back up the president, to say the total figure was between $3.1 billion and $3.2 billion. 

Mr. Trump told the chairman that the numbers had come from the Fed itself, though Mr. Powell said he had never seen it before. 

“Oh, you’re including the Martin renovation,” Mr. Powell told the president, realizing what he was talking about. The chairman was referring to a separate construction project at a different building which was completed years ago. 

“You just added in a third building. That’s what that is. That’s a third building,” Mr. Powell said curtly, folding up the paper and handing it back to the president. 

“It’s a building that’s being built,” the president said, trying to get in the last word. 

“No, no. It was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago,” Mr. Powell said. 

“It’s part of the overall work,” Mr. Trump said to reporters, again trying to win the conversation. 

“But it’s not new,” the chairman declared. 

Mr. Trump then took questions from the press, most of whom wanted to ask about the president’s scathing criticism of the central bank chairman. Just in recent weeks, Mr. Trump has called Mr. Powell a “numbskull,” “stupid,” and “a real dummy.”

When asked if there was anything Mr. Powell could say to the president Thursday to get him to cut out the name-calling, the president joked that he would “love [for] him to lower interest rates!”

“But other than that…” the president joked, trailing off as he slapped Mr. Powell on the back. Mr. Powell let out a brief laugh. 

As the two men walked away, a reporter asked about Mr. Trump’s comment that Mr. Powell was a “numbskull.” He did not respond to the question. 

After the meeting, Mr. Trump spoke to reporters on his own flanked by his staff and Mr. Scott. He said he was not looking to fire Mr. Powell, as some members of his administration and allies on Capitol Hill have suggested. 

“I thought we had a good meeting,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “There was no tension.”