Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump’s vow, Lisa Cook, an economist that is the first black woman who works on the Governor Council of the Federal Reserve, started another tense debate and probably the legal struggle for the independence of a enormous institution.
It also marks another potential top -class fall of a black leader from the federal government in the middle of Trump’s broader crusade against the politics of diversity and inclusion.
Trump’s command of releasing Koch matches the efforts of the White House to expand its power, to expand the apparently independent parts of the federal government and the broader American economy and society that warn critics, in the long term of trust in the data, guidelines and processes that undermine American strength in the long term. The move would also eliminate a long -time researcher and lawyer for a variety of and fair policy design from the lead.
On Monday, Trump said he released Cook after the director of a housing regulatory authority, which the President had appointed, allegedly committed Cook mortgage fraud. Cook rejects shooting as legally unfounded.
“President Trump supposedly released me for reasons of the law if there is no matter in the law, and he has no authority,” Cook told the Associated Press in an explanation. “I will not resign. I will continue to fulfill my duties to help the American economy, as I have been doing since 2022.”
Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, said that Cook was “credible to lie in financial documents from a highly sensitive position that monitors the financial institutions”, and that their removal “compensation and credibility of the Federal Reserve Board for the markets and the American population improves”.
Setbacks from black leaders
Trump’s move immediately withdrew the black legislators.
“Dr. Lisa Cook is the first black woman ever working in the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Donald Trump tries to remove her without credible evidence that she has done something wrong,” said Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y.
The National Urban League, a civil rights group, described Trump’s step as “witch hunt” and sentenced the president’s comments to her as “character murder”.
And the Black Caucus of the Congress defended Cook as “a respected economist who has dedicated her career to reduce obstacles for innovation and economic participation”.
The Caucus condemned Trump’s rhetoric and efforts to relieve Koch as a “racist, misogynistic and illegal attack on the integrity and independence of the Federal Reserve. It is a dangerous attempt to politicize control of the central bank and to exercise control over the central bank – one that continues to damage the economy that in our belief on the credibility on the world stage Weltbühne will damage harmful Americans in the world stage. ” “
Cook taught the Michigan State University and international relationships and was previously at the Kennedy School of Government at the Faculty of Harvard University. She was Marshall scholar, who received degrees at Oxford University and at Spelman College, a historically black women college in Atlanta.
Cook has dedicated a enormous part of her scholarship to the investigation, such as racial discrimination and targeted violence caused obstacles to economic progress for black Americans. Cook also advised the Nigerian and Rwandic governments on bank reforms or economic development. She has a call in this area to look after younger economists in the summer program of the American Economic Association.
In 2022, she was confirmed by the Senate in a party line to her board seat. The Republicans lambusted them as unqualified and found that their research was too concentrated on breed, while conservative activists occupied doubts about the quality of their scholarship. Democrats wiped criticisms as unfounded.
Former President Joe Biden nominated Cook in May 2023 at a full 14-year term. The Republicans once again commented on their academic research at the interface of business and breed. During her hearing for confirmation of 2023 in front of the Senate Bank Committee, then sub-Sen. JD Vance, R-OHIO, grilled cook in their former comments in connection with diversity.
“My concern is that in particular in the Federal Reserve that makes important supervisory work,” said Vance, “to the extent to which we concentrate on diversity, this can distract from our ability to concentrate on far more important things. I hope that none of us is distracted by some of these other concerns.”
Cook replied: “As governor of the Federal Reserve, I first think about the dual mandate and I think about the two legs of this mandate.” And “As a governor, I dealt with my colleagues at the FOMC and fought aggressively against inflation.”
Since entering the board, Cook has campaigned for the introduction of artificial intelligence throughout the economy to be carried out in an integrative way that would ensure that all municipalities apply the full potential of technology. She was also an advocate of independence and compliance with strict data acquisition and political design of the Federal Reserve.
“One thing I have always said since I became a governor is that we, as a political decision -maker, have to be modest, nimble and dependent on data,” said Cook during a December discussion at the University of Virginia. “We actually have to look at the data and interpret the data as much as possible.”
Undermine the independence of the Fed
It is unclear whether Trump’s Trump’s falls from Cook a broader trust in the independent ability of the Federal Reserve to carry out monetary policy. Trump bluntly explained that he wants the Federal Reserve to follow its preferred guidelines for interest rates. The President has repeatedly publicly insulted the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, because he maintains the independence of the board of directors.
The attacks escalated to threats of legal steps when Trump wrote on social media, he considered whether a “big lawsuit against Powell” on the costs of a renovation in the Federal Reserve building continued.
Since then, Trump has said that he has intended to appoint more allies to the leadership of the Federal Reserve that the country entrusts with the maintenance of economic stability.
“We will have a majority shortly, so it will be great,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
Some conservative economists had long claimed that the background of Cook and other board members would apply the central bank’s extensive powers in order to take guidelines beyond their double mandate.
Such claims against Cook found little purchase on the board in their first years, although the inquiries from the Trump administration had increased different criticism.
Bill Pult, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, called for Cook last week, after claiming that Cook had falsified “bank documents and real estate recordings, to acquire cheaper loan conditions and possibly acquire mortgage fraud in a letter to General Prosecutor Pam Bondi.
In response to desk, Cook said allegations that “she will take questions about my financial history as a member of the Federal Reserve seriously, and therefore collect the exact information to answer legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
“I do not intend to be bullied to withdraw from my position due to some questions raised in a tweet,” said Cook in a statement.
Since then, the Ministry of Justice has initiated its own investigations into cooks. Cook was not charged with crime.
Trump and his allies immediately demanded Cook’s fall and argued that the allegations were sufficient to earn their distance. Pult has raised similar charges with other Trump opponents, such as the Attorney General of New York, Leticia James and Senator Adam Schiff from California.
A trend to relieve black national leaders
As a former reality TV star, who became known for the catch printout “You are fired!” On NBC’s “The Apprentice”, Trump is no stranger to dismiss people with many backgrounds. However, the president’s campaign against diversity, justice and inclusion has often brought supporters of diversity, many of whom are prominent barriers are black leaders, into his crosshairs.
In March, Trump released General Charles Q. Brown Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Stabs, the highest uniformed position in the armed forces. Brown was the second black man who served in the position. He had given speeches about racial discrimination and published guidelines that promoted a wide range of programs and inclusion programs in the military – removals that brought him anger of many or her or her or her or her by defense Minister Pete Hegseth.
In May, Trump released the librarian of the Congress Carla Hayden after a conservative advocacy of interests had accused her of being a “radical”. The step of the president asked questions about the separation of powers, the future of the huge archives of the library and the preservation of books and research results, which do not summarize with the interpretation of history by the Republican administration.
Trump has released dozens of other political and impartial appointments throughout the federal government, among other things in every enormous department and in regulatory authorities such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer product security commission, the Society for Public Radio, Federal Trade Commission, Tennessee Valley Authority and more.
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, President of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, warned that Cook’s potential fall threatened the independence of the Federal Reserve and undermining trust in the institution at a moment in which stability is critically required “and represented a broad side against black specialist knowledge itself.
“This attack on Dr. Cook is not just about one person. He raises a bigger and urgent question: Is the black leadership in the most important institutions in America respected and protected or undermined and delegitimized?”
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The Associated Press Writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.
