Elon Musk has sought to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which, as its name denotes, is dedicated to protecting consumers from scummy financial schemes. Bloomberg has pointed out the interesting timing of this effort, given that Musk’s platform, X (formerly Twitter), is currently pursuing a “digital wallet” feature that would ask users to trust it with their money.
Approximately two weeks ago, X announced that it had entered into an arrangement with Visa to create a peer-to-peer digital payments system. “Another milestone for the Everything App: @Visa is our first partner for the @XMoney Account, which will debut later this year,” posted Linda Yaccarino, X’s CEO. Yaccarino noted that the “X Wallet” would soon be available, allowing the web’s shitposters to transfer money and make payments. Bloomberg notes that this deal could have potentially put it under the oversight of the CFPB, based on rules recently passed by the agency.
Now, it seems highly unlikely such oversight will occur. Musk announced the apparent death of CFPB in a tweet on Friday. “RIP CFPB,” the billionaire posted. On Monday, the newly installed CFPB chief, Russell Vought, told all of the agency’s staff members that they did not need to come to work that day. Vought had previously enacted several policies that slowed the agency’s operations down to a crawl. On Sunday, the union representing staff for the CFPB sued Vought over the work stoppage, arguing that his activities were unlawful. Another lawsuit filed by the union alleged that DOGE was violating the privacy rights of CFPB employees. Employees have also apparently organized a protest against DOGE’s activities. It’s unclear what the agency’s status will be, moving forward.
Aside from Musk, other financial benefactors of the new Trump administration have also expressed interest in destroying the CFPB. The crypto industry, which gave heavily to Trump during last year’s election, has long had friction with the agency—which makes sense, since the crypto industry is rife with financial malfeasance, fraud, and criminal activity, all of which the CFPB is responsible for policing. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase (which gave generously to Trump during his campaign) recently celebrated Musk’s attack on the agency, posting to X that the CFPB was “unconstitutional.” Similarly, Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss similarly hailed the agency: “CFPB Unplugged,” he posted, providing a screenshot of a 404 page on the CFPB’s website.
Musk is acting as the frontman for the Trump administration’s government-destruction project, though it should be noted that he is almost certainly not the chief intellectual author of it. Defunding, downsizing, and destroying the federal government is a long-espoused goal of the libertarian right, and a coherent plan for bringing that dystopian vision to fruition was recently outlined in Project 2025, the policy blueprint authored by the Heritage Foundation—a rightwing think-tank with ties to billionaires. That plan’s primary author is Trump’s new director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought (who, as previously noted, is also currently acting as the interim leader of the CFPB). Vought served as Trump’s OMB director during his first administration and is deeply aligned with the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing organizations. Vought’s worldview can best be encapsulated by the fact that his organization, the Center for Renewing America, once railed against free WiFi on school buses as some sort of government plot to “brainwash” children.
There seems to be a fairly good chance that some of DOGE’s activities are illegal, and, as a result, the initiative has come under many legal attacks over the past few weeks. As previously noted, the CFPB union is suing Vought over his hijacking of the agency. However, other lawsuits have sought to hamper Musk’s blitzkrieg against federal agencies. Most notably, a tussle over DOGE’s access to U.S. Treasury systems has set the White House on a collision path with a federal judge, who recently ruled that DOGE should not be given access to the Treasury’s payment system. Musk has rhetorically attacked the judge, with the billionaire calling for the judge to be impeached.
