Another week, another acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
Russell Vought, who was confirmed as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget on Thursday, was appointed the task of running the CFPB on Friday night, according to news reports.
Vought takes over for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was put in charge of the agency after Rohit Chopra was fired via email by President Donald Trump just over a week ago. In one of his first acts, Bessent ordered the agency to stop all lawsuits, rulemaking and even external communications.
Vought is best known for being one of the architects of Project 2025, the controversial roadmap that conservatives put together to chart a course for a second Trump presidency. During the campaign, Trump disavowed all knowledge of Project 2025.
Vought was appointed to the head of the CFPB on an acting basis on Friday night. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news.
The CFPB is one of the agencies that regulates the mortgage industry and has been active suing companies that have been accused of predatory practices and modern-day redlining.
Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump supporter, who has started an administration-sanctioned Department of Government Efficiency, and his team of programmers gained access to the CFPB website and social media pages on Friday.
The team deleted the CFPB’s X account and Musk posted on X on Friday afternoon, “CFPB RIP” with a tombstone emoji. The homepage for the CFPB was also taken down and only a 404 error message shows on the link, although other pages appeared to be live on Saturday such as the “Know Before You Owe: Mortgages” page.
It would be unlikely for Vought to “totally neuter” the CFPB, said Peter Idziak, a lawyer for Polunsky Beitel Green, a law firm for residential mortgage lenders based in Texas, in a statement.
“Although Elon Musk has called for the CFPB to be deleted, that would require an act of Congress,” Idziak said. “However, acting director Vought could minimize the bureau’s activities through reductions in staff, reduced funding requests to the Fed and continuing Bessent’s ban on continuing or opening new enforcement actions.
