President Donald Trump’s purge of federal agencies continued on Monday, when he forced out the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and replaced him with pro-big bank billionaire and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
The CFPB, which seeks to prevent predatory behavior by banks, credit unions, debt collectors, and payday lenders, was created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from the kind of financial abuses that led to the near collapse of the U.S. banking industry.
It was led by Rohit Chopra, who since October 2021 helped lead the Biden administration’s efforts to cap “junk fees,” such as banking overdraft fees and credit card late fees, that can lead to financial ruin for low-income Americans.
But since Trump forced out Chopra over the weekend, the Consumer Bankers Association—a trade association of banks—has been celebrating Bessent’s appointment.
“We’re hopeful that Secretary Bessent will take into account the real-world ramifications regulations have on America’s leading banks, the millions of consumers they serve, and the economy as a whole,” CBA President Lindsey Johnson said in a statement.
Republicans, who are in the pocket of big banks and predatory payday lenders, have been trying to get rid of the CFPB since its creation.
As the Washington Post reported after the 2024 election:
Republicans have long opposed these policies, blasting the CFPB for harming businesses through regulatory overreach. But party leaders are beginning to devise ways to turn that rhetoric into policy, signaling they intend to use control of the House, Senate and White House next year to impose new restrictions on the agency, in some cases permanently.
…
Republican lawmakers have suggested they’ll pursue their own legislative overhaul targeting the bureau. In recent weeks, they have proposed to rethink the CFPB’s leadership structure, curtail its investigative powers and tweak its funding source, since the bureau derives its budget from the Federal Reserve in a unique arrangement meant to spare the watchdog from political wrangling and industry lobbying.
It seems that appointing Bessent, who supports less regulation on banks, is Trump’s first step to making good on that promise.
Add it to the mountain of evidence that Trump doesn’t care about middle-class Americans—only his billionaire benefactors.
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