The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) might not be long for this world, and if that’s the case, prepare for yet another liberal meltdown.
The Trump administration, with the full backing of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its chairman Elon Musk, has set its sights on dismantling what conservatives have long called an overreaching and unaccountable bureaucracy. And now, Russell Vought, serving as both head of the Office of Management and Budget and acting director of the CFPB, is wasting no time in shutting it down.
First came the digital purge: DOGE shut down the CFPB’s official Twitter account, signaling that the agency’s public communications were no longer necessary. Then, Vought issued sweeping orders: the CFPB’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., would be shuttered from February 10 to 14, and all supervisory and examination activities were to be halted immediately. In a message to employees, the bureau’s Chief Operating Officer, Adam Martinez, instructed staff to work remotely unless directed otherwise.
But that wasn’t the most consequential move. Vought also notified the Federal Reserve that the CFPB would not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding—essentially cutting off the financial regulator from its funding source. Since the CFPB is not directly funded by Congress but rather through the Federal Reserve, refusing to accept funds is a significant step toward neutralizing the agency altogether.
News: In Saturday night email obtained by RealClearPolitics, acting CFPB Director Russ Vought directs Consumer Financial Protection Bureau staff to issue no new rules, suspend effective dates of all final rules, and cease any new investigations: pic.twitter.com/TIeSjr0mMq
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) February 9, 2025
For conservatives, this moment has been a long time coming. The CFPB was created during the Obama administration under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, supposedly to protect consumers from abusive financial practices. But from the start, it operated more like an unchecked fourth branch of government, wielding enormous regulatory power with virtually no accountability to Congress.
The bureau’s structure was so extreme that even the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that its leadership model—where a single director could not be removed by the president—was unconstitutional.
Republicans have long argued that the CFPB does more harm than good, driving up costs for consumers, making it harder for small banks to compete, and operating as a progressive pet project rather than a neutral regulator. Under Trump, the bureau was already weakened, but with Musk and Vought now leading the charge, it looks like its days may be numbered.
Vought’s aggressive moves have predictably sparked outrage from the left. Senate Democrats, who already saw Vought as a top enemy during his confirmation as OMB director, are now bracing for a fight. Expect hearings, legal challenges, and a full-fledged media campaign to save the agency. But with Trump determined to slash bureaucracy and Musk openly targeting regulatory overreach, it’s unlikely that the CFPB will survive in its current form—if it survives at all.
