WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, President Donald Trump took the fight to the Fed’s front door on Thursday, publicly scorning the central bank chief over the ballooning costs of a long-planned building project. Powell pushed back, challenging the president’s latest price tag as incorrect.

Trump has been less than subtle in urging the Fed to cut the rates it controls. Powell, in what has been a rare pushback against Trump among federal policymakers, insists it’s still too early to cut rates.

Analysts see signs of a shift toward easing—possibly beginning in September—but with no guarantees offered after this week's meeting.

Inflation has fallen sharply and as a result Fed officials have signaled they will cut rates by as much as a half-percentage point this year. Yet it has picked up a bit in the last two months and many of those policymakers, including Powell, still want to make sure that tariffs aren’t going to lift inflation much higher before they make a move.

But this week all eyes will be on Powell as he holds a solo press conference Wednesday that will be must-watch TV amid the political drama.

Donald Trump is rarely fact-checked by his own appointees on camera. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell did it anyway.

President Donald Trump visited the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington Thursday, where he publicly scorned Fed chairman Jerome Powell over the costs of a long-planned, roughly $2.5 billion renovation project.

Eyes were closed, heads were shaking and backs were slapped. The nonverbal cues at the president's visit to the Federal Reserve are worth another look.