Top CFPB leaders dismissed as Trump team begins to dismantle agency
By Steven Nelson – February 11, 2025
WASHINGTON — Two top leaders of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were removed from their roles Tuesday — in the first staffing cuts as President Trump’s team begins an ambitious effort to gut the 1,700-person agency, The Post has learned.
Enforcement director Eric Halperin and supervision director Lorelei Salas were placed on administrative leave by Mark Paoletta, the top lawyer at both the CFPB and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Halperin, who made remarks seen as defying orders from Trump’s aides to pause all work, resigned six minutes after receiving an email informing him that he was being placed on leave “effective immediately.”
“I write to provide notice of my resignation… Since the building is closed, please provide instructions on how to return my equipment,” Halperin responded to the leave email. “Thank you for the opportunity to serve. It was an honor.”
Salas also reportedly resigned, though The Post’s sources could not immediately confirm it.
The entire CFPB workforce was ordered Monday by acting director Russ Vought to “not come into the office” and to “get approval in writing before performing any work tasks.”
Paoletta warned the staff in a Monday email that they were not to do anything relating to enforcement and that “[f]ailure to abide by these instructions constitutes insubordination and we will take appropriate personnel action.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who briefly served as acting CFPB director before Vought, issued similar instructions earlier this month, after which Halperin wrote, “These limitations do not apply to pending litigation (e.g. discovery),” Politico previously reported.
Trump’s team began the ambitious effort to gut the 1,700-person agency Tuesday, The Post has learned.REUTER
Halperin, who made remarks seen as defying an order from Trump’s aides to pause all work, resigned in response to being placed on leave.
Both Halperin and Salas worked in the past with Democratic billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations — Halperin as a senior adviser and Salas as a fellow, according to biographies on the CFPB website.
The bureau has been a longtime target of Republicans who accuse it of being unaccountable and overzealous in its policing of financial transactions.
CFPB was created in 2010, under President Barack Obama and at the urging of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), with the mandate to crack down on risky lending that helped trigger the Great Recession.
The bureau has described its work as a smashing success, claiming in 2023 that it had restored $17.5 billion to Americans over the previous 12 years “in the form of monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief.”
Russell Vought, Trump’s choice for director of the Office of Management and Budget, ordered the entire CFPB workforce “not come into the office” on Monday.AP
Critics say it has exceeded its original brief, including by working with the Justice Department’s Operation Choke Point from 2013 to 2017, which sought to investigate and penalize gun dealers, pay-day lenders and porn companies, and by regulating auto-dealer loans and forcing non-bank financial institutions to register with the agency.
The CFPB is currently led by Vought, the Senate-confirmed OMB director, who has brought his team to the bureau located just across the street from OMB near the White House.
The ousters began at CFPB after Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative last week began the process of firing nearly all of USAID’s 10,000 employees — arguing that agency was unnecessary.
