Fox News has mentioned the Consumer FInancial Protection Bureau only a handful of times since Russell Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, took over as acting director on February 7.

Last week, President Donald Trump appointed Russell Vought — a principal architect of Project 2025 who had been confirmed by the Senate to lead the Office of Management and Budget — as the acting director of the CFPB. Upon assuming his role, Vought ordered the CFPB's 1,700 employees to cease nearly all work and closed the agency's headquarters on February 10. He also halted approval processes for proposed rules, ongoing investigations, and public communications, effectively neutralizing the bureau's operations. Vought's actions so far at CFPB tracks the stated objectives for the bureau in Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint designed to hollow out federal agencies.

The CFPB, established in 2011 after the 2008 financial crisis in an effort to protect consumers from predatory financial practices, has long been a target for conservatives who view it as a site of government overreach. Dismantling the agency removes essential safeguards for Americans, like the Biden-era protections against surprise overdraft fees, reforms to the student loan servicing market, transformations in mortgage lending rules, and the enforcement of repayments to victims of fraud from banks and money transmitters.

Despite the serious ramifications of Vought's appointment, from February 7, when he took over as acting director of the bureau, through 3 p.m. on February 10, Fox News almost entirely ignored the story. In total, the network personalities mentioned the CFPB just 5 times for a total of about 40 seconds.

Fox's coverage mostly centered around the announcement of Vought’s appointment, with little acknowledgement of the Project 2025 architect's imminent efforts to undermine the bureau. 
 

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms any of the terms “CFPB,” “consumer,” “financial,” “protection,” “bureau,” or “Vought,” or any variation of the term “Russ” from February 7, when Russell Vought took over as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, through 3 p.m. on February 10, 2025.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the stated topic of discussion, or when we find significant discussion of the bureau. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discuss the bureau with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker mentions the bureau without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promotes a segment about the bureau scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.