Trump Demands FED Governor Lisa Cook’s Resignation Amid Mortgage Scrutiny

US President Donald Trump has intensified his attacks on the Federal Reserve, this time targeting Governor Lisa Cook, whom he publicly urged to resign from the central bank’s board.

“Cook must resign, now!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Wednesday, sharing a Bloomberg report that referenced calls for scrutiny of Cook over two mortgage deals.

The report cited Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte, a close Trump ally, who had allegedly written to the US attorney general demanding an investigation into Cook and suggesting she may have committed a criminal offense.

Trump’s call adds to a growing political storm around the Fed, which has been under constant pressure from him to slash interest rates. Just a day earlier, he again attacked Fed Chair Jerome Powell for keeping borrowing costs elevated.

On Tuesday night, Trump renewed his demand for a “major rate cut,” insisting there was “no inflation” and warning that high mortgage rates were damaging the housing industry. He went further, branding Powell “a disaster” in a separate post.

Although the US consumer price index was steady at 2.7 percent in July, inflation remains higher than earlier this year, and Fed officials have kept rates unchanged in a bid to balance inflation control with labor market risks.

Legal and institutional hurdles may limit Trump’s pressure campaign. A recent Supreme Court ruling suggested that Fed officials cannot be removed over policy disputes but only for “cause,” such as misconduct. This makes it unlikely that Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, could be forced out on political grounds.

Cook, who joined the Fed in May 2022 and was reappointed in September 2023 for a term running until 2038, also previously served on former President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.

The Trump administration has in the past pursued allegations of mortgage fraud against political opponents, and the latest controversy signals a continuation of that strategy. Whether Cook faces an investigation remains uncertain.

Powell, whose current term as Fed chair expires in May 2026, has long been a target of Trump’s ire. Earlier this year, Trump even hinted that what he described as an “overly costly renovation” of the Fed’s Washington headquarters could justify removing Powell — a claim he later backed away from.