Lisa Cook Out as Fed Governor in 2025?
Legal rulings, not social media, set the stage for Fed leadership shifts.
The Fix Is In
The White House tried to blow the door off the Fed. On Aug 26, 2025 the president said he was removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Cook sued on Aug 28 to block the firing. A D.C. federal judge hears her request for a temporary restraining order today, Aug 29.
Courts are about to rule, and the catalyst is binary and imminent.
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What Really Drives This Market
Lisa Cook holds a 14-year term ending 2038. Trump announced he had fired her on Aug 25, citing alleged mortgage fraud. It is the first such attempt in Fed history.
Cook immediately refused to go and sued, seeking an injunction to block removal (injunction: a court order that freezes the action) . A federal judge in Washington could rule as soon as today or next week. Reuters has already flagged that “Trump’s firing of Fed Governor Cook could be blocked by [a] US judge”.
The legal standard is not a coin toss. The Federal Reserve Act says governors can be removed by the president only “for cause” - specific misconduct or neglect. Policy disagreement, which is of course Trump’s obvious motive, doesn’t count. The Fed is semi-independent and its legal protections are likely to come up in the hearing.