CFPB Director Chopra Fired by Trump

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra was fired by President Donald Trump on Saturday (Feb. 1) morning.

Chopra was notified of the move when he received an email from the White House, CNN reported Saturday.

A White House official told CNN, per the report, “It’s the executive’s decision and prerogative to see who they want in that role.”

Major consumer banks and tech industry leaders encouraged Trump to remove Chopra from the role, according to the report. Some banks are facing lawsuits from the CFPB.

Chopra will no longer serve as a board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), as that role is reserved for the head of the CFPB, per the report.

Chopra was appointed in 2021 by former President Joe Biden.

The Trump administration has not announced who will succeed him, Reuters reported Saturday.

In a Saturday post on X, Chopra posted a letter addressed to Trump that confirmed that Chopra’s term as CFPB director ended.

“I know the CFPB is ready to work with you and the next confirmed Director, and we have devoted a great deal of energy to ensure continued success,” Chopra wrote in the post.

He highlighted proposed rules to block countries of concern from using commercial data brokers to spy on Americans, policies to block financial firms and tech firms from debanking and deplatforming Americans based on their speech or religious views, and “a path for enacting meaningful reforms” related to Trump’s proposal to cap credit card interest rates.

The firing of Chopra was welcomed by the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, as “great news.”

Scott reposted an Associated Press article about Chopra’s firing Saturday on X, commenting, “This is great news for American consumers. I have repeatedly called for Director Chopra’s resignation since last year. I look forward to working with the next Director of the CFPB to increase accountability at the bureau and deliver for the American people.”

The ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, said in a Saturday statement on the firing that, under Chopra’s leadership, the CFPB “is holding Wall Street accountable.”

“President Trump campaigned on capping credit card interest rates at 10% and lowering costs for Americans,” Warren said in her statement. “He needs a strong CFPB and a strong CFPB Director to do that. But if President Trump and Republicans decide to cower to Wall Street billionaires and destroy the agency, they will have a fight on their hands.”

The Supreme Court ruled in May that the CFPB’s funding mechanism is constitutional, reversing a lower court ruling that threatened the very existence of the agency, PYMNTS reported at the time.

An opponent of the Supreme Court’s decision, then-House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, said at the time that “Republicans will continue the fight to rein in the rogue CFPB.”