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What are your thoughts on Elon Musk's call to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau?

Jabin Botsford

Elon Musk on Wednesday called for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the nation’s most powerful watchdog agencies, signaling it could be scrapped as part of a planned review of government spending ordered by President-elect <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a>.

“Delete CFPB,” Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1861644897490751865">said in an early-morning post</a> on X, the social media site he owns, categorizing the bureau as an example of “too many duplicative regulatory agencies” in Washington.

Formed in the wake of the 2008 banking crisis, the CFPB has a broad mandate to protect Americans from unfair, deceptive or predatory financial practices. Its current director — Rohit Chopra, a Democrat — has recently issued rules meant to shield people from medical debt, make it easier for them to switch banks and limit the fees they face from falling behind on their credit card bills.

Since its founding, the CFPB has <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/enforcement/enforcement-by-the-numbers/">secured more than $19 billion in consumer relief</a>, while penalizing large financial institutions and technology firms for allegedly mishandling Americans’ money. Its oversight often has stoked the ire of the nation’s biggest banks, credit card companies and other lenders, which have sued the bureau repeatedly over charges of regulatory overreach.

Musk did not elaborate on his personal objections to the CFPB, and he did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But his opposition is significant, as he works to set up the “Department of Government Efficiency,” a new entity outside of government that has encouraged Trump to sidestep Congress and push the limits of executive power once he is in office.

The billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla registered his disapproval in response to comments by Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, who faulted the CFPB on a podcast this week for “terrorizing financial institutions.” Andreessen is a Trump supporter and donor who is advising Musk and his outside organization, known as DOGE, which is co-led by fellow tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

Andreessen’s firm has backed a number of financial technology companies under the CFPB’s watch. In a series of <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-sues-lendup-loans-llc-allegedly-violating-military-lending-act/">enforcement actions</a> that <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/lendup-enforcement-action/">predate Trump’s first term</a>, the agency in 2021 notably shuttered LendUp Loans, alleging it misled customers about its short-term, high-rate loans and overcharged military service members. At the time, the CFPB specifically highlighted that<b> </b>the company was <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-shutters-lending-by-vc-backed-fintech-for-violating-agency-order/">backed by investors</a> including the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm.

A spokesman for Andreessen’s firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The CFPB also did not immediately respond to a request.

Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump transition team, did not respond to questions about the president-elect’s views on the CFPB. But he said in a statement that DOGE would “target waste and fraud throughout our massive federal bureaucracy.”

“They will work together slashing excess regulations, cutting wasteful expenditures, and restructuring Federal Agencies,” he added.

Privately, Trump’s top aides have considered new candidates to lead the CFPB who are expected to soften its crackdown on the financial industry, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/11/23/trump-republicans-cfpb/">The Washington Post previously reported</a>. Some of the president’s former aides, meanwhile, have called for the bureau to be abolished entirely as part of the conservative blueprint known as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/11/06/project-2025-policies-trump-president/">Project 2025</a>.

The ideas have broad support among Republicans on Capitol Hill, some of whom have signaled they will pursue their own new limits to the CFPB’s powers and funding once the party assumes control of the House and Senate next year.

Trump does not necessarily require help from Congress to neuter the bureau: Its next director has the power to rescind recent rules, terminate ongoing investigations, settle pending lawsuits and scale back the agency’s enforcement.

Early in Trump’s first term, the CFPB at one point requested a budget of zero dollars, part of an effort under then-interim director Mick Mulvaney to defang the agency. Unlike other federal offices, the CFPB is funded by transfers from the Federal Reserve, a move meant to insulate the watchdog from political infighting and lobbying pressure.

American University, BA in Journalism

Tony Romm is the economic policy and accountability reporter at The Washington Post. 


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Elon Musk wants to ‘delete’ CFPB as ‘DOGE’ begins work

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