By Phil Mattingly, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump said he didn’t want to make things personal as he stood next to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on a tour of the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation last week.

That brief respite in Trump’s relentless rhetorical war on his favorite economic foil will almost certainly expire Wednesday afternoon – possibly while Powell is still fielding questions from reporters after the Fed announces its interest rate decision. The US central bank is widely expected to leave its benchmark rate unchanged, despite the escalating and increasingly intense pressure from Trump and a cadre of top advisors to green light significant cuts.

Trump has repeatedly reiterated he has no plans to pursue the legally tenuous and market-rattling step of removing Powell, despite his deep frustration. But his allies, who demanded the access to a dramatically over-budget Fed renovation project and joined Trump for the remarkable tour, have made clear their early-stage efforts aren’t subject to similar restraint.

They’ve made clear their work is just beginning – and will almost certainly shift back to center stage in the days after the Powell and his 11 voting colleagues on the Federal Open Market Committee announce their rate decision Wednesday.

There’s no question Trump’s hard-hat laden, back-slap featuring, plywood-cost-concern-raising five-block journey to Powell’s home turf was surreal to watch in real time.

The photos of the outing didn’t disappoint either.

And were quite meme-worthy.

But for economists and Wall Street executives desperately trying to understand the allies driving Trump’s pressure campaign – and the power they hold within Trump’s orbit – the scene provided an underappreciated roadmap for a group of officials, most of whom aren’t exactly household names.

Here’s a rundown of who they are, what they do and, most importantly, why they matter in a simmering fight that’s certain to start boiling again soon.

President Donald Trump

Trump is hardly the first president to exert pressure on the Fed. The central bank’s power to tighten or loosen monetary policy has drawn the attention – and at times ire – of Oval Office inhabitants across decades and both parties. But there’s never been a president so overt, aggressive, explicit or threatening to the Fed and its coveted independence than Trump. The closest analogue would be … Trump, in his first term.

His target back then: also Powell – the Fed chair Trump nominated and first drew his ire back in 2018. Trump mulled pathways to fire the Fed chair, only to be dissuaded by White House lawyers and economic advisors who found that such a move on monetary policy grounds would to be outside of his legal authority.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell

Powell has been at the Fed since 2012, when he was tapped by President Barack Obama to serve as a member of the central bank’s board of governors. Powell’s role as chair of Fed Board and Federal Open Market Committee makes him one of the most powerful policymakers in the world. But he has no authority to set interest rates unilaterally. That authority belongs to the FOMC, of which Powell is one of 12 voting members.

Powell also served in two high-level political appointments in President George HW Bush’s Treasury Department after private sector roles as a lawyer and investment banker.

Trump nominated Powell to be Fed Chair in 2018 at the recommendation of his then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and former President Joe Biden chose to re-appoint Powell to the position in 2022.

At every stage, Powell was confirmed by a large, bipartisan Senate vote.

Sen. Tim Scott

The Republican South Carolina senator cuts a unique profile among the Trump allies probing the Fed’s renovation project. Scott is well-regarded in US Senate and, more critically, serves as the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee – the panel with jurisdiction over the Fed.

Scott’s decision to elevate reports of the Fed’s renovation cost overruns ahead of – and then during – Powell’s June testimony in front of the committee served as the spark for an issue White House officials would soon latch onto as Trump’s frustration over the Fed’s rate decisions grew.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought

Vought, one of Trump’s most bureaucratically talented loyalists, is reprising his role as Trump’s budget director in the current administration after serving in the position for the last half of Trump’s first term. That experience forms the entire basis for an exceedingly aggressive and expansive view of Trump’s – and OMB’s – authority. That approach has been essential to nearly every aspect of Trump’s relentless deployment of executive power in his first six months in office.

Vought, without an ounce of hyperbole, sits at the center of it all in part because of the near omnipresent role OMB plays in the operations of the federal government. The OMB serves as the nerve center of the entire executive branch in any administration – with jurisdiction far beyond its role in overseeing the federal budget.

That position sits at the heart of the White House efforts to leverage the Fed’s expensive renovation project in its pressure campaign. The OMB, through an official guidance document known as a “circular,” has long instructed agencies to consult with the National Planning Commission on all developments and projects related to federal land in the capital. Vought cited that guidance as the basis for the administration’s investigation into the Fed’s project.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte

Pulte cuts a unique profile within the group for his general lack of jurisdiction over the Fed or its remit. A Trump donor often spotted at Mar-a-Lago, Pulte’s influence within Trump’s orbit and among his supporters far surpasses his Senate-confirmed position overseeing mortgage giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks.

“I’d bet 95 percent of Congress can’t name the first four FHFA directors,” a Senate GOP aide told CNN. “But I’m damn sure they all know Bill.”

Pulte’s influence derives from a combination of his massive social media following – 3 million followers on X – and his unapologetic embrace of the role as Trump’s tip-of-the-spear attack dog across media platforms and cable news. He was the first prominent political appointee inside Trump’s administration to join the barrage of attacks on Powell and has been relentless in his pursuit of the issue on Trump’s behalf – oftentimes trafficking in rumors or outright falsehoods to amplify his efforts.

He’s called for Powell to resign. He’s teased and then broke the news of a largely toothless congressional criminal referral related to Powell. He blasted out a statement on agency letterhead citing “reports that Jerome Powell is considering resigning” when no such reports existed, then proceeded to cite news reports on that statement in a post two days later saying he was “encouraged” by reports of a possible resignation. He’s said the Fed renovation project provides cause for Trump to fire Powell, then again said he’d been told Powell was considering resigning, then accused Powell of “conducting economic warfare against America” – all within a few days.

Pulte also drafted the termination later Trump would later wave in front of a group of House Republicans during an Oval Office meeting earlier this month, according to three people familiar with the matter.

“He kind of takes the approach of rolling a hand grenade down a hallway in the hopes the blast will help drive an outcome,” the GOP aide said. “He’s kind of the perfect Trump appointee in that regard.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair

Blair is one of the most influential advisors in Trump’s West Wing, with an expansive portfolio that includes Trump’s legislative, political and public affairs operation.

His emergence as a player in the Powell pressure campaign is still relatively new and the result of his unexpected appointment earlier this month to the National Capital Planning Commission – the largely unknown agency Vought cited in his letter to Powell. Blair’s appointment, which became public shortly before a commission meeting and just hours after Vought posted his letter to Powell, is an unmistakable sign of Trump’s view of the importance of the effort.

Blair’s well-regarded savvy and discretion within Trump’s inner circle has, in some ways, laid bare the actual intent behind that effort. That’s because Blair has been prolific in amplifying every aspect, through links, interviews, social media posts and, of course, memes.

“If this was all some closely guarded strategy to oust Powell, I find it very hard to believe he’d approach things this way,” a Republican operative who has worked with Blair told CNN. “But he’s got a brilliant grasp of the value of amplification for effect, which seems to be the goal here.”

White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf

Scharf is probably best known at this point in Trump’s second term as the guy who hands Trump the executive orders in the Oval Office and plays straight man to Trump’s sprawling riffs in between signatures.

He’s much, much more than that inside Trump’s West Wing. Scharf’s role as staff secretary makes him one of the most powerful and consequential officials inside the White House that the public will never hear about. Scharf serves as equal parts coordinator and clearinghouse for everything that crosses Trump’s desk – and every aspect of the White House legal, policy, political and communications operations.

Like Blair, he’s a relative newcomer to the Fed fight on account of his appointment to the NCPC. Trump named him chair of the 12-member commission on July 9. He led his first commission meeting the next day, where the issue of the Fed renovation project was raised for the first time at an agency meeting despite its absence from the official agenda.

OMB Program Associate Director Stuart Levenbach

Levenbach is another first-term Trump alum, where he served as chief of staff of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before moving into the White House as a senior advisor in the White House National Economic Council and its Council on Environmental Quality.

Levenbach was Trump’s third appointment to the NCPC – the maximum number of presidential appointments authorized for the commission – and serves as a key deputy within Vought’s OMB. Levenbach’s portfolio includes oversight of federal lands and, by extension, the NCPC.

OMB General Counsel Mark Paoletta

Paoletta serves as OMB’s general counsel and, like Vought, is in his second tour in the role after holding the agency’s top legal job during Trump’s first term.

Vought has described Paoletta as his “right arm” while running OMB the first time around due to the lawyer’s ability – and willingness – to test the boundaries of accepted legal authority in order to deliver on Trump’s priorities. Paoletta’s partnership with Vought, which continued after Trump’s first term in the outside advocacy group Center for Renewing America, has been an essential component to the development of much of the legal theory underpinning Trump’s executive branch actions.

Paoletta now plays an essential behind the scenes role in Trump’s agenda at the same time he deploys his X account to amplify the administration’s attacks on the Fed renovation project.

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