President Trump has taken the unprecedented step of removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, citing mortgage fraud allegations that she claimed two homes as her primary residence.
The assertion, delivered in a letter posted on his Truth Social platform August 25, 2025, sparked immediate legal and political uproar.
Trump wrote that a criminal referral from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director, Bill Pulte, accused Cook of declaring a home in Michigan and then, two weeks later, a condo in Georgia as her primary residence to secure lower mortgage rates.
The president said this conduct “casts doubt on your competence and trustworthiness” and that he had the authority under the Federal Reserve Act to remove her “for cause.”