President Donald Trump's recent appointment of Vought as acting director of the CFPB has sparked concerns as he has halted operations, hamstrung the agency’s efforts to protect consumers, and allegedly plans to fire 95% of the bureau's workforce. 

Established in 2011 following the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has worked to safeguard Americans from predatory financial practices by implementing consumer protection measures, such as limiting overdraft fees at banks, a practice that often disproportionately affects low-income consumers; limiting credit card late fees; and removing medical debt from credit reports, helping millions of Americans struggling with financial burdens.

The CFPB's work has also included securing over $21 billion in compensation or other relief for consumers harmed by unfair financial practices, combating discriminatory lending, investigating mortgage servicing junk fees, protecting service members from unfair lending practices, tackling peer-to-peer payment fraud, and reforming the student loan servicing market.

From February 7, when Russell Vought took over as acting director of the bureau, through 1 p.m. on February 14, Fox News mentioned the bureau’s key functions only once – and the mention came from one of the network's left-leaning contributors, Richard Fowler. His explanation of the bureau’s functions was met with scorn from Fox host Greg Gutfeld, who replied, “America voted for this. … Where were you on November 5?”

“Donald Trump did not go to the American people and says, ‘I want to raise your overdraft fees,’” answered Fowler.

In total, the network has devoted a little more than 6 minutes of coverage to Vought's actions at the CFPB. Rather than informing its viewers about the consumer protection measures provided by the agency, Fox personalities at times mocked the idea that the CFPB protects consumers.

The Trump administration’s attacks on the bureau have sparked concerns among consumer advocates who fear that without the CFPB's oversight, predatory financial practices may once again proliferate, leaving Americans vulnerable to financial exploitation. As National Association of Consumer Advocates senior policy director Christine Hines explained: 

The horrific financial crisis proved that the financial services market needs a watchdog like the CFPB. Shutting the bureau down hurts the people the bureau protects from scams and predators, and it will hurt the companies that clearly need the agency’s fair rules, guidance, and law enforcement to deter potentially foolish behavior.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on Fox News Channel for any of the terms “CFPB,” “consumer,” “financial,” “protection,” “bureau,” or “Vought,” or any variation of the term “Russ” from February 7, 2025, when Russell Vought took over as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, through 1 p.m. on February 14, 2025.

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

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

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.

We then reviewed the identified segments for whether they included any participants mentioning efforts to undermine the bureau and any of the following key consumer protections that the CFPB provides: limiting overdraft fees at banks, limiting credit card late fees, removing medical debt from credit reports, securing substantial consumer monetary compensation, combating unfair banking practices, fighting discriminatory practices in lending, improving mortgage servicing by protecting against junk fees, protecting service members from predatory lending, tackling peer-to-peer payment system fraud, or reforming the student loan servicing market.