Trump Wants to Fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook

The president is demanding Cook’s resignation over what one Trump official describes as “mortgage fraud.”

Fed Governor Lisa Cook Now in Trump’s Crosshairs

“Lisa Cook is cooked.” Those are the words of Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The 37-year-old Republican is leading a campaign to ouster U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud, and President Donald Trump is throwing his full weight behind him.

“Cook must resign, now!!!” the president wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday, in what appears to be an escalation in the Trump administration’s pressure on central bank officials to cut rates or resign. Cook voted to keep interest rates unchanged in line with her boss, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, but so did her fellow Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members, with the exception of Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller.

(Bill Pulte is leading a campaign to ouster Fed Governor Lisa Cook after accusing her of mortgage fraud in a Friday letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi) And now, less than three weeks after another Fed Governor, Adriana Kugler quit and was replaced by Trump loyalist Stephen Miran, Cook may just be the next casualty in Trump’s war against the Fed, if Pulte’s mortgage fraud allegations pick up steam.

“According to documents obtained by U.S. Federal Housing, it appears an individual, Ms. Lisa DeNell Cook, has falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute,” reads Pulte’s criminal referral letter addressed to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “This has included falsifying residence statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property.”

Cook, a University of Oxford graduate, got her PhD in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has been an Economics professor at Michigan State University for more than 20 years. Prior to that, she served as senior economist for the White House Council of Economic Advisers under the Obama administration.