To Wall Street's delight, Trump fires the man in charge of protecting American consumers
This is an adapted excerpt from the Feb. 2 episode of “Velshi.”
Few government officials have been more despised by Wall Street than Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Since assuming the role in 2021, Chopra has been a relentless enforcer of consumer protections.
Some of Chopra’s more recent reforms — reforms that directly affect the financial health of everyday Americans — could be on the chopping block.
Chopra’s resume includes: removing medical debt from credit reports, capping overdraft and credit card junk fees, giving consumers greater control over their personal data, and forcing corporate offenders like Wells Fargo to return billions to consumers.
But Chopra’s tenure came to an early end on Saturday when President Donald Trump fired him. His ouster cuts short his five-year term nearly two years early and it follows mounting pressure from Wall Street, which has been lobbying for his removal.
Just three days after Trump was sworn in, The Wall Street Journal editorial board openly asked: “Why Is Rohit Chopra Still Employed at the CFPB?”
On Monday, Trump named Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the agency’s acting director and he is reportedly already taking action. The Washington Post reported, citing a copy of an email he sent to agency staff:
Bessent ordered the bureau to cease all work to craft regulations, enforce its rules, conduct investigations or provide “public communications of any type,” citing a need to “promote consistency” with the goals of the new administration, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.
With Chopra gone and Republicans in control of both the White House and Congress, Trump and his Republican allies have the mechanisms to overturn some of the CFPB’s widely popular regulations by using the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to nullify new agency rules finalized within the last 60 congressional working days.
That means some of Chopra’s more recent reforms — reforms that directly affect the financial health of everyday Americans — could be on the chopping block. This potentially includes the CFPB’s new rule that limits bank overdraft fees to $5. That measure alone is projected to save households an estimated $5 billion annually.
Trump, if you recall, campaigned on capping credit card rates at 10%. Chopra’s initiative could have forced Trump to act on that promise.
Or, the CFPB’s action to remove medical debt from credit reports, a rule finalized just days before Joe Biden’s presidency ended. Medical debt is notoriously rife with errors, with CFPB research finding that more than 4 in 10 people with medical debt have received an inaccurate bill, while almost 7 in 10 have been asked to pay a bill that should have been covered by insurance.
CFPB research finds that when medical debt was removed from credit reports, affected consumers saw an average credit score increase of 20 points.
It’s worth noting that just days before his firing, Chopra announced that the CFPB was seeking public comment on credit card interest rates — a move that could have set the stage for new regulations.
Trump, if you recall, campaigned on capping credit card rates at 10%. Chopra’s initiative could have forced Trump to act on that promise, a point the outgoing director made clear in his parting words to the president, writing:
“We have also analyzed your promising proposal on capping credit card interest rates, and we see a path for enacting meaningful reform,” Chopra wrote in a letter addressed to Trump. “I hope that the CFPB will continue to be a pillar of restoring and advancing economic liberty in America.”
Amel Ahmed and Allison Detzel contributed.