Musk tweets 'RIP' as consumer watchdog enters his crosshairs

DOGE aides scour files at the CFPB, a long-sought GOP goal for elimination

Tech billionaire Elon Musk signaled on Friday that he could seek to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as he and his advisers - deputized by President Donald Trump to cut costs - burrowed into the federal watchdog formed to protect Americans from scams and corporate abuse.

Hours later, Trump tapped Russell Vought, his newly confirmed budget chief, to serve as the agency's acting director, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal. A longtime Trump ally, Vought helped write Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint in which another contributor called for the elimination of the bureau.

Under the banner of the U.S. DOGE Service, Musk's aides established themselves at the CFPB's Washington headquarters early Friday. Setting up in a conference room, they began their review of the agency, accessing and parsing its sensitive personnel and financial records, according to emails viewed by The Washington Post and four other people with knowledge of their inquiry.

Initially, the DOGE officials appeared to study the CFPB's compliance with Trump's recent executive orders, including his directive to freeze federal hiring, the people said. But their activity unnerved bureau officials, who feared that Musk might try to orchestrate an end to the CFPB, much as he had spurred the president to take apart other federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Education Department.

By late Friday afternoon, Musk appeared to confirm those suspicions. "CFPB RIP," he posted on X, his social media site, along with an emoji of a tombstone. The tech mogul has previously expressed his support for the idea of scrapping the bureau, tweeting weeks before Trump took office: "Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies."

A spokeswoman for DOGE did not respond Friday to a request for comment. The White House also did not respond to a request. DOGE stands for Department of Government Efficiency.

Established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB serves as the leading federal agency protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive or predatory financial practices. In recent years, it has issued rules to protect Americans from medical debt, expand their access to banking services and crack down on financial institutions that levy high fees on customers. Its enforcement actions have secured roughly $20 billion in consumer relief, according to agency figures.

Any effort to eliminate the CFPB would probably require an act of Congress, though Trump has signaled he is willing to push the limits of presidential power to end federal programs that do not comport with his political views.

The agency's investigative work can be highly sensitive, affording the bureau extraordinary access to a bank's communications, customer records and other nonpublic data. But it is unclear whether DOGE officials have been able to access any of those records at the agency, according to the four people familiar with the matter. An email reviewed by The Post suggested that Musk's team may only be able to view, and not change, some databases.

A spokesperson for the CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.

Under President Joe Biden, the CFPB interpreted its mandate aggressively. Its director, Rohit Chopra, cracked down on predatory lending, issued a bevy of new bank regulations and expanded the agency's watch to include Amazon, Google and other tech firms that increasingly offer digital payment services. Many of those companies vehemently contested the oversight, often in court.

Republicans faulted Chopra for engaging in regulatory overreach, and Trump fired him last week. In his place, the president on Monday initially tapped Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to serve as the CFPB's acting director. Bessent immediately ordered bureau staff to stop working and communicating with the public.

By Friday, the full extent of the freeze started to become clear. It left CFPB officials unable to probe some corporate wrongdoing since they could not demand that companies turn over their records, according to the four people.

Bessent also blocked the CFPB from implementing rules finalized in the last days of the Biden administration, including a regulation aimed at eliminating unpaid medical debts from millions of Americans' credit reports. And the treasury secretary prohibited the bureau from mounting a defense of any of its Biden-era policies in court, leaving the fate of its most widely known work - including regulations meant to lower some credit card and bank fees - in legal peril.

"Every day that the CFPB is paralyzed because Musk, DOGE, or Trump stop its work is another day that consumers get ripped off, customers get denied bank accounts because they're not White, or honest businesses lose money to fraudulent payments," said Christine Chen Zinner, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform, which supported CFPB regulations under Biden.

A Treasury spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Vought, who was confirmed by the Senate to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget, did not immediately respond to a request. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Vought's appointment.

Trump targeted the CFPB during his first term. His acting director at the time - former congressman Mick Mulvaney, who described the agency as a "joke" - at one point requested no new money for the CFPB and moved to settle some its pending enforcement actions for as little as $1.

This time, Republicans in Congress have encouraged the Trump administration to hamstring the agency, introducing legislation that would whittle down its authority, rethink its leadership structure and strip its funding.

Musk first registered his disapproval of the CFPB in November, posting his attack on the social media site X in response to Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who donated to Trump. At the time, Andreessen faulted the CFPB on a podcast for "terrorizing financial institutions" through its oversight. His venture firm has backed a number of start-ups that the CFPB penalized in recent years for misleading consumers.