The Hostile Takeover of Consumer Protection: How Trump, Musk, and Project 2025 Are Handing the Financial System Back to the Wolves
By Justin Jest – Gonzo Journalist, Reluctant Realist, Connoisseur of Chaos
The financial industry’s worst nightmare used to be the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—an agency designed to keep banks, lenders, and credit card companies from screwing you over.
But nightmares, like regulations, can be erased.
Project 2025, the right-wing manifesto for dismantling government oversight, has made its position on the CFPB painfully clear: Kill it. Kill it fast. Burn the corpse.
And Trump, along with his billionaire cabinet, Republican Congress, and the unelected Department of Government Efficiency run by Elon Musk, is making sure that happens.
So, who’s left to protect consumers from financial fraud?
That’s the trick—no one.
Step 1: Destroy the Watchdog
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created after Wall Street nearly burned down the global economy in 2008. Its purpose? Stop banks from preying on everyday Americans.
And for that crime, Project 2025 wants it dead.
The Heritage Foundation’s playbook for dismantling government lays out the execution plan:
- Abolish the CFPB outright.
→ If Congress cooperates, the agency is erased entirely. If not, the next conservative president should order its “immediate dissolution.” - Return regulatory power to “business-friendly” agencies.
→ The plan is to scatter the CFPB’s responsibilities across the Federal Reserve, the FTC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency—agencies that have historically taken a hands-off approach to financial regulation. - Make sure the Bureau can’t fight back in the meantime.
→ Until full abolition is possible, Project 2025 recommends slashing its budget, stopping enforcement actions, and blocking it from funding consumer education programs. - Use the Supreme Court as a weapon.
→ Trump’s administration is backing legal challenges arguing that the CFPB’s funding structure is unconstitutional—hoping the courts will finish the job if Congress drags its feet.
The goal is simple and brutal: Give corporations and banks free rein to do whatever they want.
Step 2: Put a Corporate Stooge in Charge
On Day One, Donald Trump took out the CFPB’s director and installed a puppet who fundamentally doesn’t believe in the agency’s mission.
And just like that, the CFPB was turned from a consumer watchdog into a neutered shell of itself.
- New rulemaking? Frozen.
- Pending investigations? Dropped.
- Civil penalties? Redirected to the Treasury instead of helping victims.
Project 2025 called for the Bureau to be stripped of enforcement powers. Trump delivered.
Step 3: The Muskification of Consumer Protections
And then there’s Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, now moonlighting as America’s efficiency czar.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency isn’t just about gutting labor rights and slashing regulations—it’s about rebuilding the economy in his own image.
- The financial sector’s rules are being rewritten to benefit billionaires like him.
- Fraud protections are being gutted.
- Banking oversight is being rolled back.
And now he has direct access to government financial data, thanks to his unprecedented involvement in Treasury operations.
What happens when the guy who defied the SEC, tanked stock values with a tweet, and openly manipulates crypto markets has influence over federal financial regulations?
We’re about to find out.
What This Means for You
Without the CFPB, you are on your own.
- Banks can hike fees, deny refunds, and manipulate contracts without oversight.
- Predatory lenders can trap people in debt cycles with impunity.
- Mortgage and student loan protections will disappear.
The next time your bank charges you an unfair fee, manipulates your loan terms, or denies you relief in a financial crisis, there will be no federal agency to turn to.
And that’s by design.
Welcome to the Financial Hunger Games
This isn’t about streamlining government or cutting red tape. It’s about deliberately taking power away from consumers and handing it back to the people who wrecked the economy in the first place.
The CFPB was one of the last remaining defenses against corporate fraud, predatory lending, and financial abuse.
And Trump, Musk, and the Project 2025 machine just made sure it won’t be there to protect you anymore.
You are now a free market experiment.
Good luck.
