Created after the 2008 financial crash, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is that rare Washington creature: An efficient consumer watchdog. Over the years, it has returned many billions in relief for people who got fleeced by Wall Street and Main Street alike. In Trump’s America, it is unsurprisingly fighting for its life.On August 15, 2025, a federal appeals court dealt a major setback to the bureau by lifting a preliminary injunction that had temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan for mass layoffs. In a 2-1 decision, the DC Circuit said the lower court lacked jurisdiction, then left a temporary stay in place while a new hearing is considered, which means the axe could still fall. For now, however, the CFPB’s future looks precarious, at best.The bureau’s peril is not a coincidence. It is the plan. From the moment he returned to the White House, Trump made clear he wanted to dismantle the CFPB, and he enlisted the new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to help. DOGE, then run by X and Tesla owner Elon Musk, moved quickly to attack. The trouble for them was that, far from being useless, the CFPB had already returned more than $21bn to Americans’ pockets since its …
