President Trump’s shake-up of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues. The bureau was a target during Trump’s first term and its reduction is part of the administration’s priority to cut waste and cost from federal agencies, as seen in the executive order on workplace optimization. It’s a sentiment shared by DOGE leader Elon Musk, who in November tweeted out: “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.”

Here’s a timeline of everything that’s happened at the CFPB since Trump was inaugurated:

Feb. 1
—Trump fires CFPB Director Rohit Chopra 

Feb. 3
—Trump names Scott Bessent new acting CFPB director
—Bessent orders agency to stop working

Feb. 4
—Chopra leaves a blueprint for state-level enforcement  

Feb. 6
—Elizabeth Warren urges White House to ‘unfreeze’ CFPB
—Mortgage servicers plan for a de-fanged CFPB 

Feb. 7
—Musk’s team gains access to CFPB building, data systems 

Feb. 8
—Russell Vought takes over CFPB 
—CFPB home page delivers 404 message, despite being operational
—Vought shuts down most of CFPB’s functions, cuts funding, closes the CFPB headquarters

Feb. 10
—Vought emails CFPB employees to ‘not perform any work tasks’ and to ‘stand down from performing any work task’
—Regulatory experts weigh in on what happens now to RESPA and UDAAP

Feb. 11
—Trump names Jonathan McKernan director of CFPB

Feb. 13
—Legal experts weigh in on the CFPB and the future of regulation
—Meet Jonathan McKernan, the next CFPB director

Feb. 14
—What is Trump’s true plan for the CFPB?
—Lawsuit puts a pause on Trump’s plan to defund CFPB
—Judge blocks CFPB firings amid Treasury labor union lawsuit

Feb. 15
—Appraisers wrestle with dismantling of CFPB

Feb. 16
—Two CFPB critics appointed to leadership roles at the bureau

Feb. 19
— Former FHFA Director Mark Calabria joins CFPB in interim role

A narrative summary

Here’s a narrative summary of the Trump administration’s actions, beginning on Feb. 7.

On Friday, night, Feb. 7, Russell Vought, the architect of the Project 2025 plan and the newly confirmed director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, emailed top staffers at the CFPB to inform them that he’d been named acting director, according to the Wall Street Journal.

By Saturday morning, Feb. 8, the CFPB account had been deleted from Twitter and the CFPB’s home page led to a 404 “Page not found” message, although the page’s links were still functional.

In a letter to bureau staff that Saturday night, Vought directed them to:

1. Stop all supervision activity that has not been approved by the acting director.
2. Stop approving or issuing any proposed or final rules or formal or informal guidance.
3. Suspend the effective dates of all final rules that have been issued or published but have not gone into effect.
4. Stop investigative activities related to enforcement actions, including settlement of enforcement actions.
5. Cease opening any new investigation in any manner and any pending probes.
6. Stop issuing public communications of any type, including research papers.

On Sunday, Feb. 9, NPR reported that “staff and contractors at the bureau were told that the bureau’s Washington headquarters would be closed for the week and they should work remotely. But by Monday, staff got an email ordering them to not to perform any work tasks.

On Tuesday, Feb. 10, Trump nominates a new CFPB director: Jonathan McKernan, who previously served as a board member of the FDIC and senior counsel of policy at FHFA.


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