President Donald Trump has ordered Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook to appear at a White House hearing on Nov. 5, as a newly created “committee of inquiry” examines whether she made false statements on mortgage applications. The move opens another front in his effort to remove her from the central bank’s board. It comes days after he cut a fuel deal with Moscow that’s already straining ties with Kyiv.
The Fed Inquiry
Trump set out his demand in a written memo. Cook “shall” attend and answer questions, he wrote. The hearing won’t be public, though officials will publish a transcript.
“As President, it is my job to ensure the laws are faithfully executed, including by firing subordinates who cannot be trusted to tell the truth and follow the law,” Trump wrote.
Three officials will serve on the committee: Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, who has often echoed his criticism of the Fed; Keith Sonderling, acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, whom Trump also appointed to lead the Labor Department; and Andrea Lucas, chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, appointed in November 2025.
The allegations date to 2021. Trump first tried to fire Cook in August 2025, claiming she listed two different properties as her “primary” residence on mortgage applications. Mortgages for primary homes can often bring lower rates or better terms. Cook denies wrongdoing and hasn’t faced criminal charges. Her attorneys, Abbe Lowell and Norman Eisen, call the matter an “inadvertent error” and say she described one property as a vacation home in other documents.
The Supreme Court sided with Cook in June, allowing her to keep her seat. But a footnote said nothing barred Trump from “trying again” if she got proper notice and a chance to respond. The court said a for-cause firing requires an alleged offense that’s serious and related to the official’s job.
Legal and Market Questions
Scott Alvarez, the Fed’s former chief counsel, noted that President William Howard Taft created a similar commission in 1912 to remove two officials from an independent agency. Alvarez said Trump’s panel goes beyond the process the Supreme Court described, and the allegations don’t appear to meet the “for cause” standard. “It’s an attempt to show that he’s really giving Cook as much process as possible,” he said.
Jaret Seiberg, managing director of TD Cowen’s Washington Research Group, was blunter in a client note. “We do not see why the White House would start this process if it were not trying to create a way to justify removing Cook from her job,” he wrote.
The backdrop matters. Trump has repeatedly demanded lower rates, yet the Fed raised its key rate on Sept. 16 in a unanimous vote led by Chairman Kevin Warsh, whom Trump appointed earlier this year. Warsh had signaled in August that higher rates were likely. Trump and some economic advisers still blamed the broader rate-setting committee, where Cook is one of 12 voting members. No president in the Fed’s 113-year history has sought to remove a governor before. Cook’s lawyers say they’re weighing whether the process can be genuine “and not simply a box checking exercise.” The Fed declined to comment.
The Russian Diesel Deal
Separately, Trump said Friday he’d struck a diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons, he said, followed by 500,000 tons in November, 1 million tons “immediately thereafter” and another 3 million tons “within a short period of time.” The call had been expected to cover a suspected plague case in Russia.
“Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority,” Trump said. AAA put the U.S. national average for diesel at $6.28 a gallon, after it hit a record $6.52 on Sept. 22. Election Day is Nov. 3.
The Treasury Department quickly issued a temporary license allowing Russian diesel to reach global markets. Under the license, U.S. sanctions won’t apply until April 2027 to diesel loaded onto tankers as of Friday. It’s the first such license since the Ukraine war began to extend beyond the standard 30-day period. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had ruled out such a move earlier in the year.
The White House didn’t say who’d pay for the fuel, when it would arrive or whether November shipments would land before voters go to the polls.
Allies Push Back
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the move “a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners.” He said Kyiv’s team was being used as “a smokescreen” while envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Ukrainian officials in Miami about a peace proposal. Rep. Don Beyer, the senior House Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee, called the announcement “infuriating.”
The deal also clouds a bipartisan sanctions law Trump signed last month. The law calls for tariffs of up to 100% on the five largest buyers of Russian oil or natural gas. Trump didn’t mention it.
Energy analyst Michael Lynch of the Energy Policy Research Foundation was skeptical that the deal would bring price relief. “It’s kind of shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic,” he said. Russian diesel sent to the U.S. means existing customers go without and must find other supplies, he said, “and that will keep the price basically where it is now.” Russia had banned diesel exports since July after Ukrainian strikes on refineries; the International Energy Agency says output fell about 30%. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow could begin U.S. supplies in October.
Why This Matters:
Both moves test how far executive power can bend established institutions and rules. The central bank’s credibility depends on the belief that political pressure doesn’t drive rate decisions, and markets price that in. A contested removal of a sitting governor—even one the Supreme Court said could be fired with proper process and cause—adds uncertainty for investors and borrowers. On Russia, easing sanctions to pursue lower pump prices before an election trades a short-term political gain against a signed law and allied confidence. Analysts like Lynch doubt the deal will move prices much. Predictable, rules-based governance may serve markets better than deals struck on the fly.