Trump and Musk took a chainsaw to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), not despite it putting $19.7 billion back in Americans’ pockets but because it did. The crooked operators who were fined are Trump and Musk friends and allies who have been trying to shutter the CFPB since before it was even launched in July of 2011. Now that a corrupt MAGA worm, Russ Vought, has been put in charge of it and is moving to close it down, cases are being dropped against predators that chart consumers and thousands of complaints submitted to the bureau exposing fraud and scams are being ignored. Since Feb. 13— following mass firings by Vought— the bureau has uploaded just a fraction of the complaints usually dealt with, a decline of 80% from the pre-Trump rate.
CNN reported that the CFPB “abruptly dropped cases on Thursday against multiple companies that had previously been accused of hurting consumers. Court filings indicate that the consumer watchdog has decided to dismiss lawsuits previously filed against Capital One, Rocket Homes, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and a student loan servicer. Just weeks earlier the CFPB accused Capital One of ‘cheating’ millions of customers out of billions of dollars of interest payments.”
And according to the Associated Press, Vought also dropped a lawsuit against the fraudsters who run the Zelle payment platform. Between DOGE and Vought 70 CFPB enforcement lawyers have been fired.
New polling conducted by Lake Research shows overwhelming support (67%) for the Bureau, including among 60% of Republicans. When asked how important it is to regulate financial services and products to make sure they are fair for consumers, 92% of Democrats, 83% of independents and 79% of Republicans said it is important.
When two statements— one positive and one the negative argument the GOP routinely uses— were used to describe the bureau, respondents were still in favor. These were the two statements:
1. Just as we have rules to guard against dangers in consumer products, like appliances and automobiles, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should be there to provide rules for financial services and enforce them. Since its creation in 2010, the CFPB has won $21 billion in money back for consumers by enforcing consumer protection laws.
2. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is another unaccountable, wasteful, federal bureaucracy we don't need. The CFPB wastes and abuses taxpayer dollars, just to create more red tape that costs jobs and hurts economic growth. The CFPB is yet another example of out-of-control, big government stifling innovation and it needs to go.
Immediately afterward reading the two statements, 55% said we need the CFPB (80% of Dems, 57% of independents and 36% of Republicans) and 13% said the bureau. Needs to be shut down (1% of Democrats, 14% on independents and 28% of Republicans).
Members of Congress are working to save the bureau from Trump and Musk. Yesterday, Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Adam Schiff, wrote to Acting Director of the Office of Government Ethics, Secretary Doug Collins, to demand answers about Musk’s conflicts of interest as he works to dismantle the CFPB. The Senators previously wrote to Vought and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with their concerns and received no reply. The letter followed yesterday’s party-line vote in the Senate to “give Elon Musk a ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card’ by stripping the CFPB of authority to prevent fraud at his new platform X money and other digital payment platforms like Venmo or CashApp. More than three-quarters of Americans have used these platforms, with fraud rapidly increasing. ‘Efforts to shut down the CFPB are dangerous and are particularly costly for people whose claims of illegal foreclosures, car repossessions, or debanking are currently under investigation by the agency. However, despite the critical importance of the CFPB to American consumers, the Trump Administration, including Musk and DOGE, have worked to systemically undermine the agency.’ wrote the senators.”
Warren and Schiff then laid out Musk’s clear conflicts of interest: “In addition to his role as head of DOGE, Musk is the primary owner of the social media company Twitter. Since purchasing Twitter, Musk has considered expanding the social media platform into digital payments. On January 28, Twitter announced a partnership with Visa to process peer-to-peer payments and launch a digital wallet. Notably, the CFPB has taken steps in recent years to protect consumers from fraud on digital payment apps and collects proprietary information from the digital payment industry. Musk is also the founder and CEO of Tesla, which offers customers the option of working with Tesla to finance their auto purchases. The CFPB plays a critical role in supervising the auto lending industry and protecting consumers from corporate malfeasance and scams. Therefore, actions by Musk and DOGE at the CFPB have the potential to directly benefit Twitter, Visa, and Tesla— and by extension, Musk.”
The Senators also described the potential criminal consequences for Musk, noting that “if Musk has taken actions in his federal role that will benefit his financial interests without receiving appropriate waivers and approvals, he may have violated the criminal conflict of interest statute.”The Senators laid out detailed questions for the Office of Government Ethics on Elon Musk’s involvement in CFPB decision-making and compliance with federal ethics laws. They requested a robust response to their request in a timely manner.
Comments