Musk Calls to Scrap Highly Efficient Consumer Agency!

President-elect Donald Trump’s billionaire appointee for a lead role in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency voiced his intention on Tuesday to dismantle an agency that a consumer advocate hailed as “a paragon of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.”

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, stated on X, the social platform he owns, his desire to “delete” the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Since its establishment following the financial crisis of 2008, the CFPB has reimbursed almost $20 billion to U.S. citizens through financial restitution, debt cancellation, and other forms of relief.

“There are too many redundant regulatory agencies,” Musk proclaimed.

Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, responded by stating that the CFPB “was specifically established because existing financial regulatory bodies did not prioritize consumer protection.”

“But the assumption that Musk’s views are based on facts or evidence is flawed,” Weissman remarked. “It is absurd and fundamentally corrupt to have the world’s wealthiest individual, who has extensive business interests, oversee a review of federal government operations—and this discussion underscores precisely why.”

Weissman also highlighted that Musk has “secured money transmitter licenses for X in over three dozen states and is still pushing to evolve X into an ‘everything app’ centered around a payment service,” a venture that “would fall under CFPB regulation.”

He went on, “In fact, the CFPB recently completed a rule to supervise major tech firms that offer digital fund transfers and payment wallet apps. Essentially, Musk is advocating for the abolition of the regulatory body governing a market he intends to enter… This represents systemic corruption on a massive and unacceptable scale.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) also defended the consumer bureau.

“Talking about efficiency? For every dollar invested in the CFPB, over four dollars have been returned to the pockets of working Americans,” the CPC commented on social media. “It’s labeled ‘inefficient’ only by predatory corporations and billionaires with conflicts of interest.”

Since its inception in 2011, the CFPB has been targeted by Republican legislators and their corporate supporters.

During Trump’s initial term in the White House, he attempted to weaken the bureau internally by appointing Mick Mulvaney, a known critic of the agency, as its head. Mulvaney later supported an unsuccessful attempt to challenge the CFPB’s funding structure constitutionally.

However, under the leadership of Rohit Chopra, a consumer advocate appointed by President Joe Biden, the CFPB has vigorously defended consumers and tackled corporate misconduct.

The American Economic Liberties Project recently noted, “Under Chopra’s leadership, the CFPB has returned billions of dollars to American consumers; battled Wall Street and Big Tech’s discriminatory and anti-competitive practices; ensured that breaking the law is no longer just considered a ‘cost of doing business’; shut down corporate fraud schemes; and liberated millions of Americans from the stranglehold of the credit reporting industry.”

“This is a challenge for MAGA supporters and the populist right to determine if they will be openly deceived by elites seeking to manipulate them.”

Musk’s call to dissolve the agency followed statements by fellow Trump-supporting billionaire Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist, on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, where he inaccurately claimed that the CFPB exists primarily to “terrorize financial institutions.”

Andreessen inaccurately portrayed the CFPB as Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) “personal agency under her control” and insinuated that the bureau is involved in politically motivated efforts to deny people banking services.

Observers pointed out that Chopra has explicitly denounced politically motivated banking exclusions and has worked to prevent companies from unlawfully denying consumers financial services and accounts.

“Venture capitalists and Musk, who oppose the CFPB for various reasons, are blatantly lying to incite public outrage and weaken the CFPB,” added Grim. “Their message: They think you are naive and ill-informed, and they are willing to worsen your life to enrich themselves.”