President Donald Trump has fired the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Rohit Chopra, in his latest move to push out remnants of the Biden administration.
Chopra, a protégé of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), was nominated to an open Democrat seat on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by Trump in 2017 but was promoted to CFPB director by former President Joe Biden in 2021, setting him up with a fresh five-year term that ended prematurely this week, the Associated Press reported.
In a letter to Trump shared on X, Chopra said he was “grateful” to serve under both the current and recently-departed presidents and confirmed that his tenure as the bureau’s leader “has concluded”:
The former director’s term was set to run through late 2026 until Trump terminated him, the Hill reported.
A source familiar with the matter told the AP that Chopra was fired via email.
CFPB, which was formed after the 2008 financial crisis in order to regulate consumer finances like mortgages and car loans, has long been criticized by Republicans as a “government power grab that does little to protect consumers and hampers economic growth,” Breitbart News’ Bradley Jaye stated, as reports of Chopra’s imminent firing emerged last week.
Chopra backed efforts to force banks to grant loans to illegal immigrants, saying in 2023 that the government “will not allow companies to use immigration status as an excuse for illegal discrimination.”
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said that Chopra’s firing “marks the end of an era of strong consumer protection and the beginning of a plan to end this important agency” in a statement obtained by the AP.