Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has criticized Elon Musk’s call to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency that she helped create.
Last month, Musk took to X to declare, “Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.” Musk is co-leading the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative in the upcoming Trump administration that is designed to reduce federal waste.
In an interview with WBUR, Warren believed Musk’s wealth puts him at odds with the American public.
“Whenever billionaires are talking about how they think things would work better for ordinary families, hang on to your wallet,” she said, adding the agency was working successfully. “The CFPB has returned more than $20 billion directly to people who were cheated. It’s the cop on the beat that also has prevented a whole lot of other cheating.”
Musk did not respond to Warren’s comments, but in the past the two frequently criticized each other. Last week, Warren claimed Musk’s DOGE role raised conflict of interest concerns while Musk posted an artificial intelligence-generated image of Warren in Native American-style clothing, a reference to the controversy of how Warren gained educational and employment benefits by claiming a Native American racial identification.
However, Warren also offered rare praise for President-elect Trump’s by highlighting his proposal to temporarily cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
“That would be a real boost for millions of families across this country,” Warren said. “If he’s true to his word here, and I think we ought to take them at his word, then the CFPB can help him do that.”
Photo by Gage Skidmore / Flickr Creative Commons
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