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President Donald Trump is demanding the resignation of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook after she was purportedly “removed” from her position “effective immediately” over allegations of mortgage fraud, but Cook has refused to step down.

Trump posted a letter to Cook on Truth Social on Tuesday morning, five days after he first called for her to resign in a post on the same social media platform. In the letter, the president said he was acting under his authority in the Constitution of the United States and the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which gives the president the authority to remove governors from the Fed’s Board “for cause.”

“The evidence I have considered establishes for cause that there is sufficient reason to believe you have made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements,” Trump’s letter reads.

“I have determined that faithfully enacting the law requires your immediate removal from office,” the former president added.

The allegations against Cook are based on claims made by Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to an agency that regulates the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pulte accused Cook of falsely claiming to have two primary residences, one in Ann Arbor and another in Atlanta, in 2021 to qualify for favorable mortgage terms. Pulte, who made the allegations on the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” did not mince words in his accusations.

“It’s very odd to see people try to twist back way sideways and upside down to justify mortgage fraud,” Pulte said. “This is a very serious crime. Mortgage fraud carries up to 30 years in prison. I believe the president has ample cause to fire Lisa Cook. Whether he wants to do that or not is entirely up to the president. However, we will go where mortgage fraud is. If mortgage fraud is with Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter—if you commit mortgage fraud in President Trump’s America, we’re going to come after you. And Lisa Cook is no exception to that.”

Pulte wrote in the August 15 criminal referral to the Justice Department that Cook “committed forgery of bank documents, false statements, and falsifying property records.”

Cook was appointed to the Federal Reserve Board in 2022 by President Joe Biden and has quickly fired back at Trump, saying she will not resign and disputing Trump’s authority to demand she step down. “President Trump purported to fire me ‘for cause’ when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022,” Cook said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital.

Cook is being represented by attorney Abbe Lowell, who has previously represented Hunter Biden, New York Attorney General Letitia James, as well as Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. In a statement, Lowell said of Trump’s letter to Cook. “President Trump has taken to social media to once again ‘fire by tweet,’ and once again his reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis, or legal authority. We will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action.”

FOX Business has reached out to the Federal Reserve for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

Lowell later told the outlet that he would be filing a lawsuit on Cook’s behalf to further challenge Trump’s removal from the Board of Governors. “President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. His attempt to fire her, based solely on a referral letter, lacks any factual or legal basis. We will be filing a lawsuit challenging this illegal action,” he said in a statement.

Democrats Speak Out Against Attempt to Fire Cook

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., as well as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., all slammed Trump for his attempt to remove Cook and demanded that she be reinstated. Raskin also told Axios, “What an outrage and a scandal. This is the big one constitutionally.”

Warren called the attempt “an authoritarian power grab” and said that “Trump is desperately looking for a scapegoat to cover for his own failure to lower costs for Americans, and firing Lisa Cook is his latest move.”

Jeffries similarly bashed Trump for the move, insisting that there was not “a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong.” He also took a shot at the former president himself, saying: “To the extent anyone is unfit to serve in a position of responsibility because of deceitful and potentially criminal conduct, it is the current occupant of the White House. The American people are not buying your phony projection and slander of a distinguished public servant.”

Trump’s move comes as he and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have clashed over the central bank’s interest rate policy. The former president has repeatedly called on Powell and the Fed to lower rates, which would boost the economy and lower the cost of servicing the national debt, now at over $37 trillion.

The move against Cook will likely raise further questions about the president’s authority over the Federal Reserve. The Fed Act does give the president the authority to remove governors “for cause,” but such an action would also require a lawful reason that Cook and her attorneys say is missing in this case.

With Cook refusing to resign, Lowell preparing a lawsuit, and Democrats uniting in defense of the governor, the controversy may now turn into a protracted legal and political fight that could put a test to the president’s authority over one of the nation’s most important financial institutions.