Trump calls for resignation of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook

President Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, in his latest effort to bend the independent central bank to his will.

The pressure campaign, if successful, could give Trump a majority of allies on the board and allow him to fulfill his goal of lowering interest rates, even as the Supreme Court has pushed back on his attempts to exert direct control over the independent and powerful body.

“This marks a new escalation in attacks on Fed independence,” noted Derek Tang, an economist at LHMeyer, an economic consulting firm.

Trump issued the call after Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, accused Cook of mortgage fraud and asked the Justice Department to investigate her.

“Cook must resign, now!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, sharing a media report about Pulte’s allegations.

A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve did not immediately have a comment on Trump’s call for Cook to resign and Pulte’s allegations. Cook could not immediately be reached for comment through the Federal Reserve.

Trump has spent months pressing the chair of the Federal Reserve Board, Jerome H. Powell, to lower interest rates, mocking him with the nickname “Too Late” and raising the prospect he could try to remove Powell. He has so far been talked out of firing Powell by advisers who have argued it would be too disruptive to financial markets. In the meantime, Trump has sought to exert pressure on Powell by scrutinizing renovations to the Fed’s buildings, including during a tense trip to its campus last month in which the president criticized the project’s cost while ultimately saying it should be completed. Powell’s term as Fed chair ends in May.

In targeting Cook, Trump appears to be looking to open more vacancies on the seven-member Fed board, accelerating the point at which Trump-aligned governors could hold a majority. An earlier-than-expected vacancy arose this month when one of the governors, Adriana D. Kugler, announced her resignation. Trump said he was “very happy” about the opening and quickly appointed Stephen Miran, the head of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, as a replacement until the end of January, when Kugler’s term had been set to expire.

Pulte made his allegations against Cook early Wednesday on X. He accused her of committing fraud in 2021 while seeking mortgages on two properties – on a home in Michigan and a condo in Atlanta – describing both of them during a two-week period as her primary residence. He included images of Cook’s apparent signature but no other evidence to support the accusations.

“When someone commits mortgage fraud, they undermine the faith and integrity of our System,” he wrote.

President Joe Biden appointed Cook to the Board of Governors in 2022, and the Senate confirmed her in a party-line vote that required Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie. Cook is the first Black woman to serve on the board.

The president has little power to oust top Fed officials, a limit the Supreme Court recently reiterated. Generally speaking, governors can only be removed “for cause,” a standard that legal experts say applies to violations of law or serious misconduct, not over a policy difference on interest rates.

If Cook is ousted or resigns, it would hand Trump a likely majority of governors calling for cuts to interest rates. It also potentially makes it easier for him to install more Trump-friendly heads of the 12 regional Fed banks, who serve on the committee that sets interest rates. In February, all Fed bank presidents will be subject to renewal, which a majority of the board would have to approve for each.

Cook isn’t the first Fed governor Trump has targeted. Just before his return to office, Trump officials had planned to seek to demote Michael Barr, who was serving as the Fed’s vice chair for banking supervision. Barr stepped down from the leadership role to avoid a potential legal fight. He continues to serve as a governor.

The mortgage fraud allegations follow a playbook the Trump administration has used to go after other perceived Democratic enemies. Last month, the president accused Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) of mortgage fraud, and similarly referred the matter to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation.

Schiff led impeachment proceedings against Trump as a House member before he was elected to the Senate last fall. He denied any wrongdoing and said the administration’s claims were political retribution over his opposition to Trump’s agenda.