(FILES) This combination of pictures created on August 22, 2025 shows, L/R, Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lisa Cook, in Washington, DC, on June 25, 2025 and US President Donald Trump on
States — Lisa Cook, the first Black woman to serve on the powerful Federal Reserve Board of Governors, has become US President Donald Trump’s latest target as he ramped up pressure on the central bank.
Cook was one of former president Joe Biden’s choices to fill open seats on the Fed board — a seven-member body guiding US monetary policy — and she took office as a Fed governor in May 2022.
The daughter of a Baptist chaplain and a professor of nursing, Cook bears physical scars from racism after she was attacked as a young child while involved in an effort to integrate racially segregated schools in the state of Georgia.
Prior to joining the Fed, she dedicated much of her research as an adult to previously unmeasured economic scars of discrimination on the productive capacity of the world’s largest economy.
While the Fed is independent from the White House, Trump has repeatedly called on the central bank to slash interest rates this year and lower borrowing costs.
This separation from politics could come under threat as Trump intensifies pressure on the bank.
