President Donald Trump has been in office for five days now and has yet to fire Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra amid calls from Wall Street for a shake-up.
Chopra, 42, is a seemingly surprising person from the Biden administration to keep his job for so long. Republicans have long been opponents of the CFPB as an agency, seeing it as partisan, and many in the party have strongly criticized him. During Trump’s first term, his administration notably scaled down enforcement by the CFPB, which oversees credit cards, mortgages, payday loans, and many other financial products used by households.
Many Biden appointees resigned ahead of Trump entering office, but Chopra opted to stay put. Technically, his term ends in October 2026, but he can be removed by Trump at any time. The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for further comment about Chopra still holding his job but didn’t receive a response.
Meanwhile, the banking industry is pushing for Trump to fire Chopra, an acolyte of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Consumer Bankers Association press secretary Weston Loyd said that Trump will face challenges in implementing his agenda the longer that Chopra holds on.
“We’re hopeful that an executive order to reset the CFPB and fire Director Chopra will be on President Trump’s desk to sign soon,” he said. “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 Biden’s appointee has engaged in over the last several years at the bureau.”
What’s more, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial wondering why Chopra still has a job and encouraging Trump to fire him. The editorial, citing sources, also said Chopra has “sought to ingratiate himself” to Vice President JD Vance.
“If Mr. Chopra is allowed to stay in power, he’ll end up being a source of internal opposition to Mr. Trump’s deregulatory agenda,” the editorial reads. “His populist soundings on finance mask a progressive who dislikes markets and business.”
Chopra appeared on CNBC Friday and discussed the situation he finds himself in.
“I understand and I recognize that the president has the right to really put into place a new nominee, a new director of the CFPB — but until that time, I’m discharging my oath to serve my term and we are very, very busy,” Chopra said when asked if he is expecting to be fired.
During the interview, he appeared to highlight some of the areas where his CFPB and Trump might find agreement on.
“We saw the president call out some of those banks directly by name for some of their business practices, and the list goes really on and on about the obstacles we face in this job, but until that time, we’re going to keep doing our work, we have a busy docket,” Chopra said.
Chopra was referencing remarks Trump made virtually at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump drew headlines when he went after Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan during a question-and-answer portion and accused him of de-banking conservatives, accusations the banks deny.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump told Moynihan. He also mentioned JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon by name.
The banking industry pushed back after the exchange, with a JPMorgan spokesperson saying the bank has “never and would never close an account for political reasons, full stop.”
Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Chopra’s CFPB also proposed a rule that would “stop companies from using a variety of contract clauses that limit fundamental freedoms, including waivers of substantive legal rights and fine print that suppresses speech.”
And during his interview with CNBC, Chopra pointed out that on the campaign trail Trump talked about capping interest rates on credit cards. Of note, this week the CFPB issued a request for information on credit card interest rates.
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Chopra is popular with the Left, and his first foray into Washington was to work with Warren in setting up the CFPB amid the fallout of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Chopra was later appointed to fill an open Democratic seat on the Federal Trade Commission after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) recommended him.
The CFPB has long been a punching bag for Republicans, who are not fans of increased government regulation and believe the consumer watchdog holds too much power.