The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) deleted at least 2,200 webpages from its website last month, a move advocates say is part of the Trump administration’s latest effort to dismantle the federal consumer finance watchdog. The removed content, all published before Trump’s second term, includes press releases, consumer advisories, congressional testimonies, speeches, and blog posts, some dating back to 2010 when the agency was formed.
Effort to Erase History
“This is a desire to delete the story of the CFPB up until now and to start telling a new story, that the CFPB is in the way of innovation and that the CFPB is hurting, rather than helping, consumers,” said Tom Feltner, associate director of consumer policy at Americans for Financial Reform, a former CFPB policy adviser who left in December 2025. The webpage removals come as the Trump administration has actively tried to shut down the agency over the past year.
In February 2025, Trump appointed Russell Vought, White House budget director and key architect of Project 2025, as acting CFPB director. Vought ordered employees to stop work, dropped dozens of enforcement cases, and tried to fire most staff, a move blocked by a federal judge in an ongoing lawsuit. Recent court filings reveal plans to reduce headcount from 1,174 to 556.
Impact on Consumers
The deletion of website content is “the most recent part of a larger plan to undermine an agency that’s helped people,” said Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America. Created after the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has returned over $21 billion to consumers through compensation and canceled debts. A Democratic Senate report found the administration’s gutting of the bureau has already cost consumers billions.
“The CFPB has rebalanced the odds between big banks and regular people,” Rust said. “But industry doesn’t like the mission, and Russell Vought has implemented their wishes to undermine it.” The CFPB did not respond to questions about the deletions.
Analysis of Deletions
The Guardian compared the current CFPB website with versions on the Internet Archive and a mirror site created by a former employee. At least 2,228 posts dated September 17, 2010, to January 30, 2025, were deleted from the “Newsroom” page, likely an undercount. Removed content includes consumer advisories, know-your-rights pages for veterans, testimonies by CFPB directors (Vought skipped required testimonies), and speeches by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who helped establish the CFPB. Common topics were enforcement, mortgages, banking, and rule-making.
Only 16 posts remain from February 2025 to March 2026, compared to 28 in December 2024 alone. The sparse posts are more partisan, focusing on rolling back regulations. The first post after Vought took over announced returning a penalty against a Chicago company for racial disparities in mortgage lending, claiming the CFPB “abused its power.” Other posts announce scaling back payday lender enforcement, reducing fines from $2 million to $45,000, and withdrawing a statement on citizenship status in lending.
Language Accessibility Removed
The agency removed tools for non-English speakers, including filters for nine languages and a translation menu for Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, Russian, Arabic, and Haitian Creole. At least 129 Spanish posts, three Chinese posts, and one Arabic post were deleted. “Limited-proficiency English speakers do get exploited,” said Chi Chi Wu of the National Consumer Law Center. This comes as consumer complaints hit record highs—5.4 million in 2025, double 2024’s number.
Broken Links
After the removals were reported, the CFPB added a link to an archived version of the newsroom, but several links to full press releases are broken. Most deleted content is not available elsewhere. “Removing it from a government agency site and saying you can find it in the archive sends a very different message,” Feltner said. “The government is no longer offering this information.”
The Guardian’s “Deleted data” series explores how critical US government information is being deleted and its consequences. If you know about deleted datasets or materials, contact deleted-data@theguardian.com.
