A tombstone emoji is just the beginning.

Last Friday (February 7), Tesla CEO and Trump advisor Elon Musk posted "CFPB RIP" on his social media platform X. For many, this was the first clue that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had infiltrated the agency.

By the end of the day, the CFPB had a new acting director, its official X account was deleted, and the centerpiece of its homepage was replaced with "404 error" text and a crude illustration of an unplugged power outlet.

On his first full working day leading the CFPB, Russ Vought wrote to the Federal Reserve, stating that the consumer protection agency would not draw on any unappropriated funds from the fiscal quarter beginning in April.

"The Bureau's current balance of $711.6 million is indeed too high in the current fiscal environment," Vought wrote on X on Saturday (February 8). "This faucet, which has long made the CFPB irresponsible, will now be turned off."

Also on Saturday, according to an email seen by The New York Times, Vought wrote to CFPB employees, instructing them to stop "all supervision and examination activities" as well as "all stakeholder engagement." They were also told to stop work on all proposed or final rules, enforcement, investigations, settlements, and formal or informal guidance. According to American Banker, Vought also suspended the effective dates of all final rules and ordered the Bureau "not to issue any public communications of any kind."

As of Sunday (February 9), CFPB Chief Operating Officer Adam Martinez informed agency employees that the Bureau's Washington headquarters would be closed from February 10 to February 14.

"Employees and contractors should work remotely unless otherwise directed by our Acting Director or his designee," Martinez wrote in an email Sunday seen by The Wall Street Journal.

Employees who tried to retrieve laptops from the office on Sunday were turned away, according to staff who spoke to The New York Times.

Legal action

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents CFPB employees, filed two lawsuits in federal court in Washington on Sunday (February 9)—one seeking to block Vought's directives, and another urging a judge to prevent DOGE from accessing employee records.

CFPB employees fear their employment data could be used to "blackmail, threaten, or intimidate them," according to complaints seen by The New York Times.

DOGE representatives initially had only "read-only" access to the agency's personnel files, procurement records, and budget and financial data, according to Bloomberg. But by late Friday, they had gained access to all of the Bureau's data systems, including sensitive bank examination and enforcement records, the outlet reported.

The union has not hidden its disdain for DOGE's presence at the Bureau. After three relatively young DOGE staffers were added to the CFPB's directory on Thursday (February 6), the NTEU said it "welcomes our newest colleagues and looks forward to smelling Axe body spray in our elevators." The union also accused CFPB's former acting director, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, of "allowing Musk's operatives to bypass cybersecurity policies and wreak havoc with their amateur coding skills."

About 100 unionized CFPB employees protested DOGE's presence outside the Bureau's headquarters on Saturday (February 8), one observer wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.

Hanging in the balance is the future employment of the CFPB's roughly 1,700 employees—though only a few hundred positions are legally mandated, according to a source familiar with the matter cited by CNBC. Additionally, the CFPB is the sole regulator of nonbank lenders, which control a significant portion of the mortgage market.

The CFPB cannot be shut down without congressional action. But even without shutting it down, Vought could "severely weaken" the agency through "a series of slow bleeds," Adam Levitin, a Georgetown University law professor specializing in financial regulation, told The New York Times.

"He's trying to skip all the necessary steps and go straight for the kill shot," Levitin said. "He may not have the legal capacity to do so, but I'm not sure how much that matters. The Trump administration's approach to regulatory agencies is largely a blitzkrieg strategy, and a key component of that is creating fear, uncertainty, and chaos."

Lawmakers react

Lawmakers' reactions to the weekend's developments were sharply divided along party lines.

"Accountability at the CFPB is long overdue. From (former Director Rohit) Chopra's blog-style regulation to repeatedly ignoring the Chairman's calls to stop rulemaking after the election," the Senate Banking Committee's Republican account posted on X on Saturday (February 8). "Acting Director Vought will bring accountability back to the CFPB and refocus it on its mission to serve the American people."

California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters and 80 House members wrote to Bessent on Friday (February 7, presumably before Vought was named acting director), saying they were "deeply alarmed and troubled" that agency leadership appeared to be "initiating the Trump administration's plan to illegally 'delete' this popular consumer watchdog agency, in defiance of Congress's will."

The word "delete," of course, is a direct reference to Musk's preferred fate for the agency, which he expressed on X in November.

"We urge you to immediately rescind this seemingly illegal stop-work order and allow the public servants at the CFPB to get back to work for the American people, as required by law," Waters and others wrote Friday.

Vought himself, in a Saturday memo, said he was "committed to implementing the President's policies, consistent with the law, and acting as a faithful steward of the Bureau's resources."

But in his Sunday (February 9) X post, he pushed a refrain often cited by Republicans, calling the CFPB "a 'woke' and weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for far too long. This must end."

Strategy

By refusing further Federal Reserve funding, Vought may be testing a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that funds the CFPB from "the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System." Technically, the Fed has had no earnings for the past two years.

In a thinly veiled attempt to invalidate the agency, two industry groups had sued the CFPB, claiming its funding structure was unconstitutional because it receives funding through the Fed rather than Congress. The Supreme Court upheld the CFPB's financing mechanism in May of last year.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the architect of the CFPB, said on Facebook on Saturday (February 8) that "Republicans have failed to destroy (the agency) in Congress and in the courts."

"They will fail again," she wrote.

Warren, Waters, and other lawmakers plan to attend a rally outside CFPB headquarters on Monday (February 10), backed by Americans for Financial Reform and other groups.

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA), a nonprofit advocacy group, accused Musk of having a personal agenda against the CFPB.

"DOGE's continued aggressive entry into the CFPB is clearly a targeted attempt by Musk to take control of an agency he views as an obstacle to his beloved X entering the payments space," Erin Witte, director of consumer protection at the CFA, told Politico.

The day before being named acting CFPB director, Vought was confirmed by the Senate as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Vought is one of the architects of the conservative blueprint "Project 2025," under which any civil penalties collected by the CFPB that are not used to compensate consumers would go to the Treasury. Congress would also be urged to repeal Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act.