Trump's push to oust Fed's Lisa Cook unites anti-DEI effort, bid to control independent institutions

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's vow to fire Lisa Cook, an economist who is the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve's board of governors, kicked off another tense debate and likely legal battle over a major institution's independence.

It also marks another potential high-profile ouster of a Black leader from the federal government amid Donald Trump's broader crusade against diversity and inclusion policies.

Trump’s order to fire Cook aligns with the White House’s effort to expand its power across once ostensibly independent parts of the federal government and broader American economy and society, which critics warn may do long-term damage to trust in the data, policies and processes that undergird American strength. The move would also remove a longtime researcher and advocate for diverse and equitable policymaking from leadership.

On Monday, Trump said he fired Cook after the director of a housing regulatory agency, who the president appointed, alleged Cook committed mortgage fraud. Cook dismisses the firing as legally unfounded.

“President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so,” Cook said in a statement to The Associated Press. “I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022.”

Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said Cook “was credibly accused of lying in financial documents from a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions" and that her removal “improves the Federal Reserve Board’s accountability and credibility for both the markets and American people.”

Backlash from Black leaders

Trump's move drew immediate backlash from Black lawmakers.

“Dr. Lisa Cook is the first Black woman ever to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Donald Trump is trying to remove her without a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

The National Urban League, a civil rights group, called Trump's move a “witch hunt” and condemned the president's comments about her as ”character assassination."

And the Congressional Black Caucus defended Cook as “a highly respected economist who has dedicated her career to dismantling barriers to innovation and economic participation.”

The caucus denounced Trump's rhetoric and effort to fire Cook as “a racist, misogynistic, and unlawful attack on the integrity and independence of the Federal Reserve. It is a dangerous attempt to politicize and exert control over the central bank — one that will only continue to damage the economy, harm hardworking Americans, and undermine our credibility on the world stage.”

Cook has taught economics and international relations at Michigan State University, and was previously also on the faculty of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She was a Marshall Scholar who received degrees from Oxford University and Spelman College, a historically Black women's college in Atlanta.

Cook has dedicated much of her scholarship to examining how racial discrimination and targeted violence created barriers to economic advancement for Black Americans. Cook has also advised the Nigerian and Rwandan governments on banking reforms and economic development, respectively. She has a reputation in the field for mentoring younger economists through the American Economic Association's summer program.

In 2022, she was confirmed to her board seat by the Senate in a party-line vote. Republicans lambasted her as unqualified and found her research overly focused on race, while conservative activists cast doubts on the quality of her scholarship. Democrats brushed off such critiques as unfounded.

Former President Joe Biden nominated Cook to a full 14-year term in May 2023. Republicans again raised concerns over her academic research at the intersection of economics and race. During her 2023 confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Banking Committee, then-Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, grilled Cook on her past comments related to diversity.

“My worry is that especially at the Federal Reserve which is doing important supervisory work,” Vance said, “to the extent we’re focused on diversity, that may distract from our ability to focus on far, far more important things … I hope that none of us are distracted by some of these other concerns.”

Cook responded that “as a Federal Reserve Governor I think about the dual mandate first and I think about the two legs of that mandate.” And “as a governor I have been engaged with my colleagues on the FOMC and fighting inflation aggressively.”

Since joining the board, Cook has advocated for artificial intelligence adoption across the economy to be done in an inclusive manner that would ensure all communities reap the full potential of the technology. She has also been an advocate for the Federal Reserve's independence and adherence to stringent data collection and policymaking standards.

“One thing that I’ve always said since I became a governor is that we as policymakers have to be humble, nimble and data dependent,” Cook said during a December talk at the University of Virginia. “We have to actually look at the data and interpret the data as best we can.”

Undermining the Fed's independence

Whether Trump's attempted ouster of Cook shakes broader confidence in the Federal Reserve's independent ability to conduct monetary policy is unclear. Trump has bluntly stated he wants the Federal Reserve to follow his preferred policies on interest rates. The president has repeatedly publicly scolded Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for maintaining the board's independence.

The attacks escalated to threats of legal action when Trump wrote on social media he was considering whether to allow a “major lawsuit against Powell to proceed” over the cost of a renovation at the Federal Reserve building.

Trump has since said he intends to appoint more allies to the Federal Reserve's board, which the country entrusts with maintaining economic stability.

“We’ll have a majority very shortly, so that’ll be great,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.

Some conservative economists had long alleged that the backgrounds of Cook and other board members meant they would use the central bank's sweeping powers to enact policies beyond its dual mandate.

Such claims against Cook found little purchase in her first few years on the board, though inquiries by the Trump administration raised other critiques.

Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, last week called for Cook to resign after alleging that Cook had “falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud” in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Cook said in response to Pulte’s allegations that she will “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.”

“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in a statement.

The Justice Department has since launched its own investigation into Cook’s filings. Cook has not been charged with any crime.

Trump and his allies immediately called for Cook's ouster, arguing that the allegations alone were enough to merit her removal. Pulte has levied similar charges at other Trump adversaries, like New York Attorney General Leticia James and Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

A trend of firing Black federal leaders

As a former reality TV star who became known for the catch phrase “You’re fired!” on NBC’s “The Apprentice,” Trump is no stranger to firing people of many backgrounds. But the president’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies has often put advocates of diversity, many of whom are prominent barrier-breaking Black leaders, into his crosshairs.

In March, Trump fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking uniformed position in the armed services. Brown was the second Black man to serve in the position. He had delivered speeches about racial discrimination and issued policies that promoted diverse, equity and inclusion programs in the military — moves that earned him the ire of many in Trump's orbit, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

In May, Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden after a conservative advocacy organization accused her of being a “radical.” The president's move raised questions about the separation of powers, the future of the library's vast archives and the preservation of books and research that do not comport with the Republican administration's interpretation of history.

Trump has fired dozens of other political and non-partisan appointees across the federal government, including at every major department and on regulatory boards like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Election Commission, Tennessee Valley Authority and more.

Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, warned that Cook's potential ouster threatened the Federal Reserve's independence, “and undermines confidence in the institution at a moment when stability is critically needed,” and represented a broad side against Black expertise itself.

“This attack on Dr. Cook is not just about one individual. It raises a larger and urgent question: will Black leadership in America’s most vital institutions be respected and protected, or undermined and delegitimized?”

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Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.