Donald Trump’s attempt to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been met with a lawsuit. 

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees at the bureau, on Sunday filed two lawsuits against Russell Vought, the newly confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget and the CFPB’s acting head. One lawsuit is seeking to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, from gaining access to employee information, stating that three of the pseudo-department’s staffers were granted internal system access. 

The same day that Vought granted DOGE access to CFPB systems, the lawsuit alleges,  Musk posted “CFPB RIP” on X. 

The second lawsuit attacks a directive from Vought issued in an email over the weekend ordering the CFPB’s employees to stop most, if not all, their work, including investigations and issuing new rules. The suit alleges that Vought’s directive “reflects an unlawful attempt to thwart Congress’s decision to create the CFPB to protect American consumers.” Vought also has refused to receive the agency’s latest funding disbursement. 

CFPB employees were told that their headquarters would be closed this week in a move reminiscent of what happened to the U.S. Agency for International Development last week. Just like at USAID, much of the bureau’s website is no longer working, and last week, Trump fired the agency’s director, Rohit Chopra. 

Closing the agency was a major recommendation in the conservative manifesto, Project 2025, and Vought, as one of the document’s architects, is clearly carrying out that goal along with Musk and Trump. It seems that much like the rest of the Trump’s administration’s wanton actions, the fate of the CFPB will be decided in the courts.

A Freudian slip from the secretary of Homeland Security might have revealed her own personal take on Elon Musk’s federal takeover—and its residual national security risks.

Speaking with CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday, a recently confirmed Kristi Noem momentarily seemed to forget that she—and the world’s richest man—are now part of the government that their longtime rhetoric so vehemently rejects.

“I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about, and worried about, the government—particularly unelected people—having access to personal data,” Bash said.

“Well, we can’t trust the government anymore,” Noem responded.

“You are the government,” Bash pressed.

“Yes, that’s what I’m saying,” Noem continued. “The American people now are saying that we have had our personal information shared and out there in the public—”

“But now Elon Musk has access to it,” Bash interjected.

“Yes, but Elon Musk is part of the administration that is helping us identify where we can find savings and what we can do and he has gone through the processes to make sure that he has the authority that the president has granted him,” Noem said.

“You’re totally comfortable with him,” Bash continued.

“I am today by the work that he is doing identifying waste, fraud, and abuse. His information that he has is looking at programs, not looking at personal data and information,” Noem continued, evading the fact that the billionaire actually has tapped into sensitive data—such as federal databases containing Social Security numbers, home addresses, and medical histories—for hundreds of millions of Americans. “This audit needs to happen to make sure we are going through a process that adds integrity back into these programs.”

BASH: I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about the government having access to personal data

NOEM: Well, we can't trust the government anymore

BASH: You are the government pic.twitter.com/xRh4Q3VINk

Whether Musk even has the proper clearances to access such sensitive data has been an ongoing topic of discussion. Last week, Trump designated Musk a “special government employee,” which, per the Justice Department, is “anyone who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period.” But hours after the appointment, even top officials in the administration weren’t confident that Musk had cleared a background check to do the job.

On Thursday, a U.S. District Court in Washington acknowledged the apparent threat of Musk’s rapid involvement in the government, blocking him and two of his DOGE groupies from further accessing government databases.

CNN’s Dana Bash and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had an exasperating, circular argument on Sunday regarding Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency now having unfettered access to troves of personal data housed in the department.

“The Washington Post is reporting that Musk and his DOGE team have access to FEMA’s sensitive disaster data, which includes personal information about tens of thousands of disaster victims,” Bash said to Noem. “Have you authorized Elon Musk and his team to have access to Americans’ personal data that is housed inside DHS?”

“We’re working with them at the president’s direction, to find what we can do to make our department much more efficient,” Noem replied. “This is essentially an audit.”

“That’s different from him having access to personal data that is housed in—”

“The president has authorized him to have access,” Noem said curtly.

“And you feel comfortable with that?” Dash asked.

“Absolutely!’

“I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about, and worried about … the government—particularly unelected people—having—”

“Well we can’t trust the government anymore,” Noem retorted.

“You are the government,” Bash said.

Noem went on to reiterate the same point again: An unelected billionaire having personal access to this kind of information is totally fine because Trump said so, years of Republican policy be damned.

This is just another moment in Trump’s all-out blitz on the federal government, as he allows Musk and his team of young cronies to hack........

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