Trump attempting to illegally fire Federal Reserve governor

Any semblance of an independent federal reserve is probably over:

President Trump said he is removing Lisa Cook, a Joe Biden-appointed Federal Reserve governor, citing allegations that Cook submitted fraudulent information on mortgage applications.

“I have determined that there is sufficient cause to remove you from your position,” Trump wrote in a letter to Cook posted on social media on Monday night.

Trump’s decision comes days after Bill Pulte, the leader of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, alleged that in 2021 Cook sought mortgages on two properties—one in Michigan, the other in Atlanta—and described both of them as her primary residence in papers submitted 14 days apart. Pulte said he would submit the information to the Justice Department in a criminal referral.

Cook said last week that she learned from the media that Pulte was making a criminal referral based on the mortgage application. “I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” she said, adding that she would take questions about her financial history seriously. 

Trump said Friday that he would fire Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board, if she didn’t resign, though it is legally unclear whether the president possesses such power. 

At a minimum, Cook should absolutely not resign; if he’s going to do this make it as politically costly as possible.

Somewhere, John Roberts is presumably furrowing his brow because Trump is not adhering to the spirit of his ipse dixits, but given the Court’s general stance toward Trump it’s the emptiest bluff in history. Republican elites just can’t be told, you know.

…good thread:

1/2 Trump should absolutely not be able to fire Lisa Cook. But this is because he should not be able to fire anyone with statutory tenure protections.— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz.bsky.social) Aug 25, 2025 at 6:23 PM

2/3 The Supreme Court’s attempt to draw a line between the Fed and every other independent agency is transparent bullshit designed to simultaneously serve the conservative legal movement’s interest in deregulation via the “unitary executive” and corporate interests in not crashing the economy.— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz.bsky.social) Aug 25, 2025 at 6:25 PM

3/3 Don’t let John Roberts et al. off the hook by claiming that Trump is somehow “defying” the Court here. He is, at most, taking advantage of incoherent nonsense in the Court’s opinions to be, in some sense, more principled than Roberts.— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz.bsky.social) Aug 25, 2025 at 6:26 PM