(Reuters) -The White House on Thursday launched a fresh attack on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, with a top Trump administration official saying Powell had “grossly mismanaged” the central bank, chastising him for running a deficit and for extensive cost overruns for building renovations.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, in a letter addressed to Powell and posted on social media platform X, said: “Instead of attempting to right the Fed’s fiscal ship, you have plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul of your Washington, D.C., headquarters.”

The letter’s reference to cost overruns in building renovations marked a new line of assault from the administration against Powell, who has been criticized repeatedly by President Donald Trump and his aides over the Fed chief’s failure to lower interest rates since Trump returned to office in January.

“While continuing to run a deficit since FY23 (the first time in the Fed’s history), the Fed is way over budget on the renovation of its headquarters. Now up to $2.5 billion, roughly $700 million over its initial cost,” Vought wrote in an X post accompanying the letter. “These renovations include terrace rooftop gardens, water features, VIP elevators, and premium marble. The cost per square foot is $1,923–double the cost for renovating an ordinary historic federal building. The Palace of Versailles would have cost $3 billion in today’s dollars!”

A Fed spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

The Fed is required by law to return any of its excess earnings to the Treasury, but for about three years it has run an operating deficit. Higher interest rates imposed by the Fed to combat inflation starting in 2022 led to its outlays to commercial banks for the reserves they deposit at the Fed exceeding the interest it earned on its large but shrinking bond portfolio and other fees it collects for providing services to the financial sector. As of Wednesday that deficit had reached more than $235 billion, Fed data shows.

Meanwhile, the Fed has been renovating two buildings adjacent to its Washington headquarters, and Powell was pressed by lawmakers about the cost overruns during his testimony last month to the congressional committees charged with Fed oversight. Powell rejected reports that the project included lavish features but conceded it had run over budget, saying, “the cost overruns are what they are.”

“There are no new water features, there’s no beehives, and there’s no roof terrace gardens,” Powell said in response to questioning from Senator Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and chair of the Senate Banking Committee.