On Friday, Vought reportedly sent an email to top staff at the agency saying he was now the acting director, according to the Wall Street Journal. Vought was confirmed on Thursday by the Senate in a party-line vote of 53-47 to lead the Office of Management and Budget, where he served in the first Trump administration as a director, acting director and deputy director. 

Vought has been a key architect of Project 2025, a policy blueprint from the conservative Heritage Foundation for overhauling the federal government. Trump repeatedly denied during his campaign having any association with Project 2025 but has gone on to install many of its authors in the government.

Vought replaced Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who held the job of acting CFPB director for five days, starting on Monday. Bessent immediately issued a stop-work order to halt most of the agency's functions. 

The Trump takeover of the CFPB began in earnest on Friday when at least three staffers with the Department of Government Efficiency — a newly-created office headed by billionaire entrepreneur and close Trump ally Elon Musk — arrived at the agency's Washington D.C. headquarters with laptops. Their arrival, first reported on the website of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 335, caused further fear and confusion among the bureau's staff, which has been thrown into turmoil by the administration's pressure to resign and accept deferred resignation offers. A district judge gave unions and federal workers until Monday to respond to the offers.

The banking industry has opposed a number of rules and proposals put forward under former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, including rules limiting credit card late fees to $8, limiting overdrafts to $5 in most cases and rules governing the portability of consumers' financial data. Musk has called for the CFPB to be eliminated, though only Congress has the authority to eliminate a federal agency, banking and legal experts say.

On Friday, Musk posted on X: "RIP CFPB."