The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is headed for a rocky future under President-elect Trump.

The powerful financial watchdog agency is in for a reckoning during a second Trump administration, which will likely take steps to curb its power and regulatory agenda.

The CFPB has been in Republican crosshairs since it was created through the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law to crack down on customer abuse in the financial system. But the CFPB is receiving new scrutiny after a warning from tech mogul and close Trump ally Elon Musk.

Musk, the co-lead of Trump's new "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), fired a warning shot at the consumer watchdog agency last week, calling for it to be “deleted.”

While Musk and DOGE can't follow through on that alone, experts say the CFPB is likely to face efforts to weaken its regulatory powers under Trump.

"The conservative movement has been existentially opposed to the CFPB since it was conceived of by then-professor Elizabeth Warren,” said Graham Steele, former assistant secretary of financial institutions at U.S. Treasury under President Biden.

Dodd-Frank sought to protect the CFPB from political attacks and industry influence by giving an independent source of funding from the Federal Reserve and a director that could only be fired by the president for misconduct.

Democrats, especially progressive Wall Street skeptics, have praised the CFPB for its aggressive action against banks, lenders and other financial firms, often pointing to the billions of dollars secured by the bureau in restitution for jilted consumers.

But Republicans insist the CFPB has overstepped its authority and the Constitution with a regulatory crusade against law-abiding........

© The Hill