Trump demands the Federal Reserve's Lisa Cook step down
Cook said in a statement that she had “no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.”
Lisa Cook, governor of the US Federal Reserve, speaks during a Fed Listens event in Washington, DC, US, in March 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning demanded the resignation of Federal Reserve official Lisa Cook in his latest attack against the central bank.
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The call for Cook's resignation came less than a day after Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte disclosed an Aug. 15 letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi pushing the Department of Justice to probe Cook's mortgages. Pulte suggested Cook committed mortgage fraud.
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"Cook must resign, now!!!" he said in a short social media post linking to a Bloomberg News story about her.
The FHFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Department of Justice declined to comment. The White House declined to comment on the record.
Cook issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying she had learned from news reports about Pulte’s criminal referral. She said she wasn’t going anywhere.
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said. “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.”
Trump has embarked on an extraordinary campaign for several months to pressure the Federal Reserve to lower the cost of borrowing. He's expressed enormous fury at Fed Chair Jerome Powell in particular for holding steady on interest rates all year. Other allies within the administration like Pulte have joined the president in prodding the central bank to cut interest rates.
In Pulte's case, his staunch advocacy to remove Powell has prompted some criticism from Republican senators who believe he should focus on his main task of overseeing the mortgage industry.
Trump recently had an opportunity to imprint his stamp on the central bank after the early resignation of former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler. That allowed him to name White House aide Stephen Miran to the slot, at least temporarily. Another opening in the Board of Governors would pave the way for the president to install a second pick who's friendlier to his push for lower interest rates.
Cook was nominated by former President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate in a May 2022 party-line vote. She is the first Black woman to serve on the Fed's Board of Governors, a 7-member group that takes frequent votes on monetary policy and helps regulate the financial sector. Her current term expires in 2038.
Pulte's letter described mortgage documents it had obtained about Cook, alleging she had "falsified bank documents and property records to obtain more favorable loan terms." Over the course of a month in 2021, Cook obtained primary residence mortgages on two properties in Michigan and Georgia and declared both to be her main residence.
She later listed the Georgia property for rent in 2022, which led Pulte to urge Bondi to investigate if Cook didn't disclose rental income as part of her Fed financial disclosures.
Cook isn't alone in attracting scrutiny from the Trump administration over allegations of mortgage fraud. Prominent Democratic figures like Sen. Adam Schiff of California are in the same crosshairs as well.