Images: Elon Musk Tweet Via Twitter
Protest outside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau via Joe Flood (Flickr)
Shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 1, the Trump administration began the initial stages of shuttering the U.S. government agency the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), firing its director, Rohit Chopra. The agency has since been cycling through several directors appointed by President Trump, from investor Scott Bessent (who has since moved on to become Secretary of the U.S. Treasury) to political analyst and Project 2025 author Russell Vought (now the director of the Office of Budget Management) to its new nominee, Republican politician Jonathan McKernan.
CFPB employees’ worries grew exponentially after Trump’s now-senior advisor and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, made a foreboding post on X reading simply “CFPB RIP .” The agency website’s homepage was edited on the same day to return a 404 error message; though the rest of the site can still be viewed, it is no longer being updated.
The conflict of interest was shockingly apparent, as Musk had recently announced the launch of his new mobile payment service, X Money. This new system would be overseen by only one regulator. You’ve guessed it — the CFPB. It’s evident that Musk does not want a regulator policing his and his cronies’ businesses and making sure they do not scam consumers.
Soon after Musk’s post, CFPB employees were ordered to halt all work operations, with plans to fire about 95% of them. The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), a workers’ union representing federal employees across 36 government agencies and departments, filed a lawsuit on Feb. 9, claiming that the Trump administration “has unlawfully trampled the power of Congress to create a federal agency that it deemed necessary to protecting American consumers.”
The NTEU is presently still involved in a legal battle to defend the CFPB; a federal judge on Feb. 14 ordered Acting-Director Russell Vought not to terminate any CFPB employees without cause until another hearing on March 3. The agency’s employees have since been ordered to go on paid administrative leave.
It’s easy to roll one’s eyes and keep scrolling — after all, so much has happened in the month since the presidential inauguration that it’s hard to keep up or form an opinion on any of it. Amidst all of Trump’s executive orders, however, his order to shutter the CFPB is arguably the most detrimental to Americans everywhere.
Since its inception in 2011, the agency has returned $21 billion to consumers that were cheated by financial companies. The CFPB protects consumers from predatory practices of financial institutions, products and services like student loan lenders, banks and mortgage lenders, ensuring that they return money to consumers who are rightfully entitled to it. It also ensures that consumers’ personal and financial information is both accurate and protected from nefarious forces. Without it, millions of people would remain in debt; scammers would be free to rob unsuspecting individuals; and banks would upcharge their members with junk fees, unmanageable interest rates and discriminatory lending with no consequences.
The agency fights for consumers through a combination of internal investigations, legal enforcements and consumer complaints; it also maintains a webpage where consumers can submit their complaints against financial companies, as well as a publicly accessible database of past complaints that names thousands of companies. These complaints range from debts attributed to the wrong person to improper use of credit reports.
Its protection of consumers doesn’t stop at major institutions — it encompasses nearly all financial injustices the average American may face, no matter how small.
“They helped me get $200 refunded from [my] credit card when I bought something on Ebay but never received it,” explained a consumer who chose to remain anonymous. After a dispute with their credit card issuer was denied, they filed a complaint to the CFPB, which reached out to the consumer’s bank and urged it to give back the money in full.
The potential loss of $200 may not sound like a terrible tragedy, but it is nonetheless an example of how banks — and, in many cases, businesses — exploit their customers.
On top of this, the CFPB is a vital authority in enforcing over 20 different laws aimed at protecting consumers and their finances, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Truth in Lending Act. Laws like these exist to prevent financial institutions from discriminating against consumers on the basis of race, age, sex or other discriminatory factors, as well as forcing institutions to disclose transparent, accurate information about the services they provide.
This means that, for example, banks providing loans to consumers are required by law to disclose information about the costs and terms of the loans — they cannot bury that information under mountains of confusing terminology that the average person wouldn’t understand, nor can they suddenly change the terms after they’re accepted or utilize any other deceptive practices to wring money out of consumers who take out loans.
Without the CFPB, consumers will be faced with many more hurdles in reporting the harm that financial institutions cause them, if they’re able to report anything at all. There won’t be a designated agency to take reports and fight specifically on the side of the average American regardless of their income, and with a government restructured to favor the wealthy, banks and the CEOs in charge of them will be able to get away with robbing consumers of their money scot-free.
Should the Trump administration succeed, the CFPB will disappear — not only will this harm consumers, but with about 1,700 employees slated for termination in the CFPB alone, alongside many more from various other federal agencies, a nationwide unemployment crisis may be on the horizon. Combined with Trump’s attacks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), this spells trouble for an agency with a high percentage of female and racial minority employees.
In an America that’s slowly being corrupted by the rich and powerful, a lack of protections and regulations will lead to an even bigger economic disparity as poor and middle-class people are robbed of everything they have — their money, their homes, their financial safety nets and their chances at economic prosperity. The CFPB is, essentially, the only thing standing in the way of financial institutions bleeding Americans dry for their own benefit.
It’s critical that this agency remains in existence for the safety, freedom and security of Americans everywhere. To keep the CFPB alive and kicking, reach out to your senators and representatives here on the Consumer Reports website.
Alexandra Share is a third-year English major. AS991133@wcupa.edu