President Donald Trump's budget chief said that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell "has grossly mismanaged the Fed." Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought also suggested Powell had misled Congress about a pricey renovation of the central bank's headquarters.

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday called on the Federal Reserve to lower the federal benchmark interest rate by at least 3 percentage points, renewing his call for the U.S. central bank to lower rates to help reduce the cost to service the nation's debt.

Fed meeting minutes reveal growing divisions among policymakers, with several officials signaling openness to a rate cut this year amid modest inflation pressures and tariff uncertainties, while others favor maintaining the current stance.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday stuck to his position that the central bank will keep its key rate on hold while it waits to see how President Donald Trump’s tariffs effect the

Trump extended a federal hiring freeze until Oct. 15, with exceptions for the military, immigration enforcement and national security.

Comparable federal building renovations cost many orders of magnitude less than the office you are building yourself on the taxpayer’s dime,” it added. Vought said Powell’s June semi-annual monetary policy testimony before the Senate Banking Committee revealed that the project was out of compliance with the plan approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) with respect to major design elements.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to cut down on the size of the federal workforce, despite warnings from experts that vital government services will be lost and hundreds of thousands of federal employees will be out of their jobs.