Trump fires the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
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PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump has fired the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, in the latest purge of a Biden administration holdover.
Chopra was one of the more important regulators from the previous administration who was still on the job since Trump took office Jan. 20. Chopra’s tenure saw the removal of medical debt from credit reports and limits on overdrafts penalties, all based on the premise that the financial system could be fairer and more competitive in ways that helped consumers.
But many in the financial industry viewed his actions as regulatory overreach.
In a social media post Saturday about his departure, Chopra thanked people across the country who “shared their ideas and experiences” with the government’s consumer financial watchdog agency.
“You helped us hold powerful companies & their executives accountable for breaking the law, and you made our work better,” Chopra posted on X above pictures of his letter announcing that he would no longer lead the bureau.
During Trump’s first term, he picked Chopra as a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission.
Chopra was notified of his firing in an email from the White House, according to a person familiar with the notice who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Critics had urged Trump to fire Chopra. “The longer Director Chopra stays, the harder it will be for this pro-growth administration to undo the politically-driven, government-price setting agenda that former President Biden’s appointee has engaged in over the last several years at the Bureau,” Weston Loyd, press secretary at the Consumer Bankers Assn., said in an email.
Trump administration fires prosecutors involved in Jan. 6 cases and is moving to fire FBI agents involved in investigations involving the president.
Under the law, Chopra was to serve a five-year term, which meant he could have stayed on as director. But he had publicly stated that he would leave his post if asked.
Chopra is an ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of Trump’s favorite targets, and the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement that the agency under Chopra held “Wall Street accountable for cheating hard-working families.”
Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement that Chopra’s dismissal “marks the end of an era of strong consumer protection and the beginning of a plan to end this important agency.”
Boak writes for the Associated Press.
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