President Donald Trump is taking a sledgehammer to the remnants of former President Joe Biden’s regime.
When a new administration enters the White House, it is normal for those who worked for the previous White House to resign, but sometimes, there are those who hang on and wait to be fired.
Rohit Chopra was one of those, but last week Trump removed him as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
On Saturday, the former director posted on his X account, thanking those he worked with.
“It’s been an honor serving as your (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) Director. Every day, Americans from across the country shared their ideas and experiences with us. You helped us hold powerful companies & their executives accountable for breaking the law, and you made our work better. Thank you,” he said, along with a gracious letter he sent to the president thanking him and vowing to work with whoever the new director will be.
Trump picked Chopra to be a Democrat member of the board during his first stint in the White House.
Chopra had offered to stay on if the president wanted him to, but he was fired instead, Newsweek reported.
It came after Chopra’s critics in the business industry called for him to be removed by the president.
“The longer Director Chopra stays, the harder it will be for this pro-growth administration to undo the politically-driven, government-price setting agenda that former President [Joe] Biden’s appointee has engaged in over the last several years at the Bureau,” Consumer Bankers Association press secretary Weston Loyd said.
Electronic Payments Coalition executive chairman Richard Hunt said Chopra’s tenure “was marked by witch-hunts and political weaponization” of the bureau, arguing that Chopra’s policies reduced the access that “vulnerable consumers” had to financial credit.
However, Democrats said that Chopra worked to give back billions of dollars to American consumers.
California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, the top minority party member on the House Financial Services Committee, issued a scathing press release denouncing Chopra’s termination.
“President Trump’s decision to fire CFPB Director Rohit Chopra marks the end of an era of strong consumer protection and the beginning of a plan to end this important agency. Since taking the helm of the CFPB in 2021, Director Chopra has worked tirelessly to ensure the agency fulfills its critical mission of protecting American families in the financial marketplace,” the congresswoman said.
“In the face of repeated and coordinated attacks, Director Chopra’s fearless advocacy on behalf of working-class families has returned more than $6 billion to harmed consumers. That’s not all. Director Chopra has taken decisive action to address the harsh reality that hardworking families are increasingly stretched thin and living paycheck to paycheck,” she added.
“Under his leadership, the CFPB has taken action to eliminate costly and illegal junk fees imposed by big banks, hold student loan servicers like Navient accountable for defrauding hardworking students, protect servicemembers from high-interest loans, promote transparency in the small business lending market, ban medical debt from being used to block creditworthy borrowers from accessing credit, tackle discrimination in housing and the economy, and take on big banks like Wells Fargo for repeatedly breaking the law and exploiting the very consumers they claim to serve,” she continued.
“While his accomplishments are too long to list, Director Chopra also advanced reforms to promote competition and strengthen privacy protections for consumers, actions that earned him unusual praise from Congressional Republicans. It’s no wonder why four out of five Americans support the CFPB, including a staggering 77% of Republicans. Even a conservative Supreme Court hostile to all kinds of regulatory agencies agreed that the CFPB and its funding is constitutional,” she said.
“Director Chopra, we thank you for your years of public service and remain grateful for the incredible work you have done in the past few years leading the excellent CFPB staff in protecting our nation’s consumers,” Rep. Waters said.