Trump says he’s firing Fed Reserve Board Governor Lisa Cook
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced that he is removing Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve Board Governor, from her position.
In the letter addressed to Cook that was posted on social media Monday night, Trump said there was “sufficient evidence” that Cook made false statements in mortgage agreements in a referral made by Trump’s Federal Housing Finance Agency to the Department of Justice to remove her from her role.
“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,” the letter said.
“I have determined that faithfully executing the law requires your immediate removal from office,” Trump closed the letter.
In response, Cook released a statement saying Trump “has no authority” to fire her and that she will “continue to carry out my duties.”
“I will not resign,” she said.
Cook’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, also indicated legal action is coming, saying they will take “whatever actions are necessary” in order to block what they describe as Trump’s “attempted illegal action.”
ABC News has reached out to the Federal Reserve for comment.
Last week, Trump called on Cook to resign on the same day that Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, posted on X part of an Aug. 15 letter sent to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi accusing Cook of falsifying bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, “potentially committing mortgage fraud,” the letter stated.
In a statement provided to ABC News last week, Cook said she learned from the media about Pulte’s letter seeking a criminal referral over the mortgage application, which predated her time with the Federal Reserve.
“I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in the statement last week. “I do intend to 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.”
Cook was nominated to serve on the board of governors in 2022 by former President Joe Biden. Her term runs until January 2038. Cook is the first Black woman in history to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has threatened the Washington Commanders football team, stating he will not facilitate a deal for the team’s new stadium to be built in Washington, D.C., if it does not revert to its former name.
“My statement on the Washington Reskins has totally blown up, but only in a very positive way. I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington,” Trump wrote on his social media platform on Sunday.
In another post on Sunday, Trump called on the Commanders to “immediately” change their name.
“Their heritage and prestige is systematically being taken away from them. Times are different now than they were three or four years ago,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
ABC News has reached out to the Commanders for comment on Trump’s demands.
Trump also said that the Cleveland Guardians baseball team should switch back to its old name, too, and called out Ohio Senate candidate Matt Dolan, who owns the team, claiming that he lost several elections because of the name change.
“The Owner of the Cleveland Baseball Team, Matt Dolan, who is very political, has lost three Elections in a row because of that ridiculous name change. What he doesn’t understand is that if he changed the name back to the Cleveland Indians, he might actually win an Election. Indians are being treated very unfairly. MAKE INDIANS GREAT AGAIN (MIGA)!,” Trump wrote on Sunday.
The Cleveland Guardians’ president of baseball operations, Chris Antonetti, said in a statement on Sunday that there have not been any plans to change the team’s name, according to The Associated Press.
“We understand there are different perspectives on the decision we made a few years ago, but obviously it’s a decision we made. We’ve got the opportunity to build a brand as the Guardians over the last four years and are excited about the future that’s in front of us,” Antonetti said.
The Guardians didn’t have any additional comment when asked by ABC News.
With the Commanders, Josh Harris, the managing partner for the team, said earlier this year that the team would not be changing its name, according to The Associated Press.
The Association on American Indian Affairs said in a statement to ABC News that Trump’s remarks on Sunday are a “distraction from the real harm this administration continues to inflict on Native Peoples” and that there is “no genuine respect for Native Nations here — only empty gestures and political theater.”
“The idea that Native Nations broadly support the use of these names and mascots is false. Hundreds, if not thousands of Native Nations, Native organizations, scholars and youth leaders have repeatedly and clearly expressed that Native ‘themed’ names and mascots are offensive and dehumanizing,” the association said in a statement on Monday.
The association went on to say that these mascots and names — like the former name for the Commanders — “reduce us to caricatures.”
The Washington Commanders dropped its former name in July 2020 after years of complaints over its racist connotations toward Native Americans. The team adopted the generic “Washington Football Team” two weeks later, though it was only supposed to be in place for the 2020-21 season. Then in 2022, the team revealed it’s new name would be the Washington Commanders.
A 2020 study from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley found that at least half of more than 1,000 Native Americans surveyed were offended by Commanders’ previous team name.
In 2024, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill with unanimous consent that would allow the federal government to lease more than 170 acres of land at the site where the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium is currently located, which would allow for the possibility of a new stadium to be built. The team currently plays at the Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
The bill transfers the jurisdiction of the stadium site from the federal government to local D.C. authorities.
“We are extremely grateful that our elected officials have come together on a bipartisan basis to give Washington, D.C. the opportunity to decide on the future of the RFK stadium site. This bill will create an equal playing field so that all potential future locations for the home of the Washington Commanders can be fairly considered and give our franchise the opportunity to provide the best experience for all of our fans,” Harris said in a statement on Dec. 21, 2024.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller, Mark Osborne and Deena Zaru contributed to this report.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on August 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A rare political standoff continued between the leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration continued on Thursday, leaving CDC Director Susan Monarez’s termination in limbo as high-level CDC officials resigned in protest.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters President Donald Trump had fired Monarez, saying Monarez “was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.”
“It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly reelected on November 5,” Leavitt said. “This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.”
Leavitt said her replacement will be announced “very soon” either by Trump or by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But immediately after the White House press briefing, Monarez’s attorneys pushed back that she still hasn’t heard directly from the president and thus hasn’t been officially terminated from her job — her stance since Wednesday.
“[White House press secretary] can say whatever she wants because thankfully free speech still exists in this country. But it doesn’t make her comments factually true, even when from a White House podium,” attorney Mark Zaid wrote on X.
Monarez’s attorneys maintain that she will respect the decision of the president himself, but said they have not had any further communication with the White House since Wednesday night, when a White House staffer notified her that she’d been fired. They don’t consider the notification substantial enough because she is a Senate-confirmed, presidential appointee.
Further legal routes, if they don’t hear from the president, are “under consideration,” Zaid told ABC News. In the meantime, Monarez does not have access to her work office or email, he said.
Meanwhile, President Trump has yet to publicly weigh in on the dispute.
Kennedy, at a news conference about rural health in Texas on Thursday, said Monarez was “let go.”
“There’s a lot of trouble at CDC, and it can require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self esteem and make that agency the stellar agency that it’s always been,” Kennedy said.
Monarez’s attorneys say the administration is attempting to oust her for “protecting the public” over serving “a political agenda.” The dispute began as a disagreement over demands from Kennedy and his top staff for Monarez to support changes to COVID vaccine policy and the firings of high-level staff, which Monarez would not commit to, a source familiar with the conversations told ABC News.
After HHS said on Wednesday that Monarez was no longer director of the agency, four other senior career officials at the CDC also resigned, according to emails obtained by ABC News.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a deciding vote on Kennedy’s confirmation to lead HHS as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wrote on X that the “high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee.”
Cassidy also called for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a committee that reviews vaccine data and determines nationwide recommendations, to be indefinitely postponed following the CDC staff shakeups. The next meeting of the agency’s vaccine panel is scheduled for September 18 and 19.
“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting. These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted,” Cassidy said in a statement on Thursday.
The White House on Thursday was asked about Trump’s stance on COVID vaccines, specifically whether he believes they should be available and covered by insurance for all Americans, regardless of age and pre-existing conditions.
The question came after the FDA on Wednesday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines for only high-risk Americans, a narrower scope than in the past.
The new, more limited FDA approval for the vaccines questions about accessibility — whether people will still be able to get the vaccines easily in pharmacies, rather than doctors offices — and insurance coverage, which is often determined by the CDC advisory committee’s recommendations. The list price, without coverage, for certain COVID vaccines is over $100.
“The reason for the revocation of that emergency youth authorization is because, obviously, the COVID pandemic and the public health emergency is over,” Leavitt said. “But just to correct the record, because there’s been a lot of misinformation on this, the FDA decision does not affect the availability of COVID vaccines for Americans who want them.”
“We believe in individual choice. That’s a promise both the president and the secretary have made. It’s a promise they have now delivered on,” Leavitt said.
(WASHINGTON) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte called President Donald Trump “Daddy” on Tuesday, reacting to the president’s recent use of expletives when he accused Iran and Israel of violating a ceasefire agreement.
Early Wednesday morning during a bilateral meeting between Trump and Rutte during the NATO Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Trump likened the countries of Israel and Iran to “two kids in a schoolyard” that had a “big fight.”
“You know, they fight like hell. You can’t stop them. Let them fight for about two-three minutes, then it’s easy to stop them,” he continued.
Rutte raised eyebrows when he interjected, “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get them to stop.”
“You have to use strong language,” Trump agreed. “Every so often you have to use a certain word.”
One day earlier, Trump became visibly frustrated about the Israel-Iran conflict, blurting an expletive before departing the White House en route to the summit.
Trump was receptive to Rutte’s nickname, saying during a press conference later Wednesday that the secretary-general meant it in an affectionate manner.
Asked if Trump views his NATO allies as his “children,” the president responded, “No, [Rutte] likes me. I think he likes me. If he doesn’t, I’ll let you know. I’ll come back and I’ll hit him hard, OK? He did it very affectionately, ‘Daddy, you’re my Daddy.'”
Rutte later defended his use of the word and continued to pile praise on Trump, describing him as a “good friend.” He also said his language is a matter of taste.
On Trump’s decision to strike Iran and the ceasefire, Rutte said “I think he deserves all the praise.”
