Georgia-born economist says she won’t leave the Fed despite Trump firing her

It’s the first time a president has ever sought to oust a sitting Fed governor, and it comes as Trump has escalated pressure on Chair Jerome Powell and his allies to slash interest rates.

The move could trigger a far-reaching legal battle over the scope of presidential authority. Under the Federal Reserve Act, governors can only be dismissed “for cause,” which is typically defined as malfeasance or professional negligence.

Cook contends “no cause exists under law” to remove her. Experts have questioned whether Trump’s firing would stand up in court because a “for cause” removal usually requires a proceeding to allow Cook to defend herself, which has not happened.

Trump, however, said in a letter to Cook that her “deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter” gives him leeway to remove her.

“At a minimum, the conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator,” Trump wrote.

The unproven allegations stem not from federal investigators but from statements by Bill Pulte, Trump’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Authority. He’s emerged as one of the loudest voices criticizing Powell and other Fed officials for refusing to lower interest rates.

State property records show Cook has never claimed a homestead exemption on her midtown Atlanta condo. In Fulton County, a homestead exemption is a form of tax relief for residents who own and occupy the home as their primary residence. Records also show she hasn’t missed a property tax payment.

But those records don’t include her mortgage application, which is not publicly available.

If successful, Trump’s firing attempt would give him a majority of allies on the Federal Reserve Board and position him to exert more direct control over the independent central bank.

The unlikely focus on Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the seven-member board, puts a renowned economist with deep Georgia ties in the nation’s spotlight.

She grew up in Milledgeville, where her mother was a faculty member at the nursing department of Georgia College and State University and her father was a local chaplain.

She and her sisters were among the first Black students to desegregate the local schools, and she said in an October 2024 speech that experience gave her confidence in the “hope and promise of a world that could and would continually improve.”

She graduated from Spelman College as a physics and philosophy major, studied at the University of Oxford and later earned a doctorate degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

A hike up Mount Kilimanjaro with a British economist inspired her to pursue economics, she has said, because it offered a way to answer “big and important questions” about society.

She went on to serve as a Treasury Department adviser during the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, later working in the Obama White House. President Joe Biden nominated her to the Fed board in 2022; her term runs until 2038.

Cook is making clear she will fight back. Her attorney, Abbe Lowell, said Trump’s “reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority.”

He added: “We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”

This story was originally published in the Politically Georgia newsletter.