Elon Musk Demands Shutdown Of Consumer Bureau

Elon Musk took to social media Wednesday to demand the shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Musk is spearheading President-elect Donald Trump’s initiative to reduce the size of the federal government. In a post on X, previously known as Twitter, Musk said that the CFPB should be dismantled and claimed that the regulatory agency overseeing potential future payment operations for Musk’s X platform is redundant.

While Trump has advocated for reduced financial industry regulations throughout his campaign, he has not specifically demanded the closure of the CFPB, Politico reported. Although Trump has distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which advises shutting down the CFPB, his administration is expected to curb the agency’s regulatory scope and soften enforcement against corporations, as previously seen during his first term.

The Supreme Court turned down a lawsuit in May that might have led to the shutdown of the CFPB. The justices, in a 7-2 decision, declared it legal for the CFPB to get its money directly from the Federal Reserve rather than through Congress, disappointing the business groups that challenged this funding method.

This controversy surfaced shortly after the CFPB enacted a rule to broaden its oversight over major tech firms offering payment and digital wallet services, potentially affecting X, which is venturing into the payments realm, Politico said. Musk has expressed his ambition for X to evolve into an “everything app,” including financial transactions.

“We’re rapidly transforming the company from what it was, Twitter 1.0, to the everything app,” Musk said during an internal X meeting in Oct. 2023.