President Trump moved to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, in an escalation of Trump’s campaign to assert more control over the central bank.
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Drew Angerer/Getty Images
President Trump moved to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook Monday, escalating his campaign to exert more control over the central bank.
In a social media post, Trump said he was dismissing Cook in response to allegations from a Trump ally that she had made false statements on a mortgage application.
Under federal law designed to insulate the central bank from political pressure, Fed governors can only be removed for cause. Trump said he had determined there was sufficient cause to fire Cook.
“The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve,” Trump wrote in a letter addressed to Cook. “In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity.”
Earlier this month, Bill Pulte, a Trump loyalist who oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, accused Cook of mortgage fraud, citing two home loans she obtained weeks apart in 2021, before joining the Federal Reserve. The two properties were in Michigan and Georgia. Pulte said Cook had represented that each property would be used as her primary residence — a declaration that often results in more favorable loan terms.
Cook has not replied in detail to the allegations, saying she is gathering information, but she insisted last week she would not be “bullied.”
The effort to fire Cook comes in the midst of a high-pressure campaign by Trump and his allies to get the central bank to lower interest rates. Trump already has an opportunity to appoint one new member to the Fed’s governing board, after the surprise resignation of Adriana Kugler earlier this month. If he succeeds in ousting Cook, that would create another vacancy, potentially giving Trump appointees a majority on the seven-member board.
The firing could invite a legal challenge, since the Fed is designed to operate independently of the White House.
“The illegal attempt to fire Lisa Cook is the latest example of a desperate President searching for a scapegoat to cover for his own failure to lower costs for Americans,” said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the Fed. “It’s an authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act, and must be overturned in court.”