Trump administration

An executive order issued late Friday cut the Treasury Department Community Development Financial Institution Fund and other federal programs to their legal minimum.

A Maryland judge temporarily halted mass layoffs of probationary employees at multiple agencies, citing legal violations and harm to states' ability to respond to unemployment needs.

Among the resignations are Mark McArdle, who was instrumental in creating the Qualified Mortgage rule, and Operations Chief of Supervision David Bleicken. It is unclear if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will hire anyone to succeed them.

President Donald Trump said he inherited an "economic catastrophe" from his predecessor in a joint address to Congress, though markets fell Tuesday on fears of a budding trade war with Canada and Mexico.

Rubin, who oversaw a shift to budget surpluses as Treasury chief under Democrat Bill Clinton in the 1990s after serving as co-chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said that while some federal spending can be cut, "as a practical matter" there's insufficient scope for that to rein in deficits.

At a court hearing on Monday, lawyers for the Trump administration said statutorily required work is being done by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, while the union claimed the government is trying to shut the agency down.

Thirty members of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees signed a letter petitioning the administration to name a new vice chair for supervision — and quickly.

The Justice Department said in a legal brief that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will continue to exist, but said instead that the agency will have fewer employees and a reduced budget under the Trump administration.

While Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is continuing to try and save the agency she helped create, Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who benefited from crypto spending in his primary race, is a new ally.

The Trump administration has installed Jeffrey Clark at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Clark, a former environmental lawyer in the Justice Department in the first Trump administration, was indicted as part of the president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The White House has tapped former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Director Jonathan McKernan to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and attorney Jonathan Gould to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency late Tuesday.

In comments to reporters, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., underscored what she said was a conflict of interest between Elon Musk's DOGE's actions at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and his business interests with X Money.

Russell Vought, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new acting director, ordered staff to stop all work and closed the agency's headquarters for a week.

Some mortgage stakeholders say Trump's tariffs would make interest rates rise and housing costs shoot up.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who was named to be acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has told the agency's staff to put a halt to all rules, enforcement actions and hiring.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Rohit Chopra in a letter to President Donald Trump confirmed that his "term as CFPB Director has concluded."

State banking associations across the country said that Michelle Bowman should be the Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision, not least because she already sits on the Fed board and could start immediately.

Russell Vought, should he be confirmed by the full Senate, would join a short list of those able to lead the CFPB, as his predecessor Mick Mulvaney did, per the requirements of the Vacancies Act.

The final vote was 68-29 in favor of Senate the confirmation of the billionaire hedge fund manager.

Experts say the Trump administration is waiting for Scott Bessent to be confirmed as treasury secretary and for other appointees to clear the Senate before naming acting heads at federal banking agencies.