Trump threatens to fire US Fed Governor Lisa Cook | Politics News

Cook, who has been accused of mortgage fraud, says she will not be ‘bullied’ into resigning by the president.

United States President Donald Trump says he will fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook if she doesn’t quit, intensifying his effort to gain influence over the central bank.

“I’ll fire her if she doesn’t resign,” Trump told reporters on Friday during a visit to a Washington, DC, museum focused on the White House.

Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, said she had “no intention of being bullied to step down” after Trump on Wednesday called for her resignation on the basis of allegations about mortgages she holds in Michigan and Georgia.

Cook on Wednesday said she took any questions about her financial history seriously as a member of the Fed’s board and was gathering accurate information to answer any legitimate questions.

Asked about the matter on Friday as she attended the Fed’s annual research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Cook said she had no further comment beyond her earlier statement.

Cook is among three Fed governors appointed by former President Joe Biden whose terms extend beyond Trump’s time in office, complicating the president’s efforts to gain more control by appointing a majority of the seven-member Board of Governors. Two of the Fed’s board members were appointed by Trump – Governor Christopher Waller and Vice Chairwoman for Supervision Michelle Bowman.

Trump has repeatedly criticised Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May, first over his failure to reduce benchmark interest rates and more recently over cost overruns on a renovation of a Federal Reserve building.

US Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte raised the allegations against Cook in a post on X on Wednesday, saying she had designated a condo in Atlanta, Georgia, as her primary residence after taking out a loan on her home in Michigan, which she also declared as a primary residence. Pulte told CNBC he is also investigating property Cook has in Massachusetts.

Loans for a primary residence can carry easier terms than those for second homes or investment properties. Pulte said the loans in question date to mid-2021 before Cook was appointed to the Fed and confirmed by the Senate in 2022. Cook, a native of Georgia, was an economics professor at Michigan State University at the time the mortgages were taken out.

Pulte asked US Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate, and Trump quickly amplified the allegation. The Department of Justice is taking the matter very seriously, a department official told the Reuters news agency earlier this week.

Allegations ‘cobbled together’

Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, blasted Trump’s attack on Cook on Friday, saying in a statement that it was a clear continuation of his ongoing effort to “undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve” and deflect attention to signs of economic challenges caused by his policies.

“Their latest target is Dr. Lisa Cook, a highly qualified, trailblazing economist, and the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors since Congress created it in 1913,” Waters said. “Let me be very clear, the allegations against Dr. Cook have been cobbled together as a pretext to try to replace her with someone who will be loyal first to Trump instead of the US Constitution or US law.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is heading the effort to find a replacement for Powell.

Trump is pushing for early Senate confirmation of loyalist Stephen Miran, head of the Council of Economic Advisers, whom he nominated for a temporary seat on the Fed board, replacing Adriana Kugler. Kugler, the first Latina on the board, resigned abruptly this month, months before her term was due to end on January 31.