President Trump should not fire Jay Powell.

The Fed chairman is likely to hold rates steady again at next week’s meeting, which is almost certainly a mistake. But if unemployment begins to creep higher and the economy softens, Trump can then blame Powell. His own appointed Fed leader can become a useful fall guy.

Speculation about Trump firing Powell is ongoing, despite repeated denials from the White House. He stoked those concerns again yesterday by visiting the Fed’s headquarters, the first time in 20 years a president has made that trek. Trump went purportedly to inspect what has become known as the “Taj Mahal on the Mall,” aka the $700 million-over-budget $2.5 billion remodeling project of the Fed’s building. Russell Vought accompanied Trump; the head of the Office of Management and Budget has calculated that the cost of the Fed’s elaborate construction is about the same as the price originally paid (adjusted for inflation) for France’s Palace of Versailles.

Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) referred Powell to the Department of Justice for criminal charges, accusing him of two specific instances of lying under oath before a Senate committee about the particulars of that headquarters modernization.

To be clear, notoriously spendthrift D.C. legislators have not suddenly found religion about cost overruns on federal projects. Scrutiny........

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