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12:30 Report — Trump turns focus to CFPB; DOJ pushes to drop Adams charges

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11.02.2025
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12:30 REPORT

Good afternoon! I’m Emily Martin, filling in for Cate on this chilly Tuesday. Inside today’s edition:

  • Trump, Musk go after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

  • Trump meets with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

  • Democrats see funding deadline as leverage.

  • A preview into the annual Westminster Dog Show.

Someone forward this newsletter to you?  Sign up for your own copy here.

 

© The Hill, Greg Nash

Trump, DOGE gutting consumer bureau:

Administration officials and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been targeting agency after agency in an effort to cut what they see as government waste and shutter programs that don’t align with President Trump’s agenda.

The Trump administration has moved quickly to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and has signaled plans to target funding at the departments of Education and Defense, to name a few.

The latest target: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

What we know: The administration and DOGE descended on the agency over the weekend. Newly confirmed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought was appointed acting CFPB director Friday, and since then:

  • Vought ordered the agency to “cease all supervision and examination activity” and “stakeholder engagement,” as well as telling employees to “stand down from performing any work task.”
  • He also said the agency would not take its next drawdown of funding from the Federal Reserve.
  • The CFPB’s X account has been deleted, and its homepage shows a “404: Page not found” error, but the overall site remains functional.
  • Employees affiliated with DOGE have gained access to CFPB’s data systems, according to Bloomberg News, giving them full access to the information stored at the agency, such as sensitive bank examination and enforcement records.

From one CFPB employee: “I think everyone assumes this is the USAID playbook, and I think everyone’s operating off of the assumption that we’re about to get annihilated, the way that they were annihilated,” the employee told The Hill’s Julia Shapero.

Just in: Two career officials at the CFPB resigned Tuesday following the order to stand down from all work, according to CNN.

What’s the GOP’s beef with the CFPB?: Republicans have opposed the CFPB since its inception, arguing the agency oversteps its regulatory authority, as well as the bounds of the Constitution. They’ve tried to fight the agency multiple times in court to little avail.

The CFPB was the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) before she joined Congress and was established to protect consumers in the financial sector (i.e., credit cards, student loans, etc.).

FWIW: The CFPB can’t be eliminated without an act of Congress.

 

➤ LAWMAKER REACTIONS:

Warren: “So why are these two guys trying to gut the CFPB? … It’s not rocket science: Trump campaigned on helping working people, but now that he’s in charge, this is the payoff to the rich guys who invested in his campaign and who want to cheat families — and not have anybody around to stop them.”

Rep. Maxine Waters (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee: “Why the richest man in the world is working to gut the agency that has returned $21 billion to harmed American consumers is simple … Such a platform would be regulated by — you guessed it — the CFPB.”

 

➤ RELATED READS:

  • Shutting down CFPB ‘begging for another financial crisis’: Former director (The Hill)
  • Trump is slashing agencies long hated by the GOP. The next cuts might be harder. (

    © The Hill