President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against the Federal Reserve and Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates entered a new front this week

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.

The central bank is quietly pushing back with a new “Frequently Asked Questions” page on its website defending the central bank’s renovation.

President Donald Trump is escalating his pressure campaign to get the Federal Reserve chairman to either lower interest rates or quit his post by targeting the expensive renovation at the central bank’s headquarters.

But their presence made a lot more sense when the new commissioners spoke up — and promptly took aim at one of Trump’s political foes, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Powell has resisted Trump’s demands to lower interest rates.

President Donald Trump and his allies have seized upon a new way to criticize the head of the US central bank: his handling of an expensive renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.