President Trump said Monday he has fired Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors — a dramatic move after months of public attacks against the central bank.
The president announced Cook’s removal from the Fed board in a letter posted to Truth Social that accused Cook of making false statements on mortgage documents, actions he claimed were “gross negligence” and “potentially criminal.” Mr. Trump had previously urged Cook to resign, leading the economist to say she had “no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.”
The move is an early test of Mr. Trump’s power to terminate members of the Federal Reserve. Under federal law, Fed board members serve for 14-year terms and can only be fired by the president “for cause.” Cook has served on the Fed since being appointed to complete another member’s unexpired term in 2022, and her current term would run until 2038
Mr. Trump wrote in a letter to Cook: “I have determined that there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position.”
In a statement Cook’s attorney provided to the New York Times late Monday, she said, “I will not resign.”
The statement said that there is no cause under the law for Mr. Trump to fire her. Attorney Abbe David Lowell said they “will take whatever actions” needed to prevent Cook’s firing, the New York Times reported.
CBS News has reached out to the Fed for comment.
What are President Trump’s allegations against Lisa Cook?
The allegations against Cook were leveled earlier this month by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who has positioned himself as an ally of Mr. Trump’s. Pulte sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of taking out mortgages for homes in Michigan and Georgia in 2021, and telling banks in both cases that she planned to use the homes as her primary residences — in what Pulte alleged was a fraudulent attempt to gain more favorable lending terms.
Last week, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social: “Cook must resign, now!!!”
Cook said in a statement released through the Fed: “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
Pulte has also made mortgage fraud allegations against California Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James, two Democratic officials and Trump foes who denied the accusations. Notably, James’s office sued Mr. Trump and his company for loan fraud before his return to the White House, securing an almost $400 million civil court judgment that was tossed out by a New York state appellate court last week.
Why is President Trump angry at the Fed?
Cook’s firing came after Mr. Trump spent months attacking the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, over the central bank’s handling of interest rates.
Cook, Powell and 10 other Fed officials sit on a committee that controls the nation’s monetary policy and sets target interest rates, with a dual mandate of keeping inflation low and employment levels high. This work is typically done independently, with little to no input from political leaders.
The Fed hiked interest rates to decades-long highs in 2022 and 2023 in a bid to quell inflation. After some cuts last year, the central bank has chosen to leave rates at relatively high levels so far this year, fearing that inflation could come roaring back or that Mr. Trump’s tariff strategy could cause consumer prices to jump. The trade-off is that higher interest rates can lead to slower economic growth, and they make it more expensive for American consumers and businesses to borrow.
Mr. Trump has lashed out over this strategy, nicknaming Powell “Too Late.” The president has floated the idea of firing Powell, in some cases accusing him of mismanaging a project to renovate the Fed’s headquarters.
Powell hinted last week that interest rate cuts could be on the horizon, as the Fed tries to prevent inflation from spiking without triggering higher unemployment. During a speech in Jackson Hole, he said the Fed will “proceed carefully,” but recent shifts “may warrant adjusting our policy stance.”
Even without firings, the president could reshape the Fed board as positions open up. If the Senate confirms Mr. Trump’s replacements for Cook and another Biden nominee who stepped down early, four of the Fed’s seven governors will be Trump appointees — making up most of the Fed’s board of governors and one-third of the 12-member interest rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
Currently, just two Fed board members are Trump picks, both from his first term: Powell and board member Christopher Waller.
Mr. Trump is widely expected not to appoint Powell to another four-year term as Fed chair when his current one ends in May 2026, though he hasn’t announced a successor yet. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has nominated his economic adviser Stephen Miran to serve on the Fed board until January 2026, replacing Adriana Kugler, the Biden appointee who left the board earlier this month. It’s unclear who he will pick to replace Cook.
Cook was confirmed in 2022 by the Senate when then-Vice President Kamala Harris broke the 50-50 party line tie, making Cook the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She started her term in May 2022 and it runs 14 years.
She has voted in sync with Powell to hold interest rates steady so far this year.
Reaction to Mr. Trump’s move so far has been along party lines. For instance, in a post on X, Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said it was “doing the right thing to hold people accountable” while Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts issued a statement saying this represented an “authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act.”