President Donald Trump said Friday he will fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook if she does not resign from her post.
“What she did was bad,” Trump told reporters during a visit to The People’s House, a museum of the White House. “So I’ll fire her if she doesn’t resign.”
Cook, appointed in 2022 by former President Joe Biden, is under scrutiny following allegations about her mortgages. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte accused Cook of listing two properties as her primary residence at the same time. Pulte referred the matter to the Justice Department, which confirmed Thursday it will investigate.
Cook has rejected the calls to step down. “I learned from the media that FHFA Director William Pulte posted on social media that he was making a criminal referral based on a mortgage application from four years ago, before I joined the Federal Reserve,” she said Wednesday. “I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously … and provide the facts.”
If Cook were removed “for cause,” Trump would gain another chance to shape the Fed’s seven-member board. Two seats are already held by his appointees, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, both dissenting in the Fed’s recent decision to hold rates steady. Another seat opened earlier this summer with Adriana Kugler’s resignation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Friday that Trump is “trying to find a scapegoat for his failure to lower costs for Americans.” Trump’s comments came as Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking in Jackson Hole, said economic conditions “may warrant” interest rate cuts later this year.
