New acting CFPB director Mick Mulvaney vows 'to protect people without trampling capitalism'

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 27 November 2017

Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney took over Monday as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — an agency he once called "a sick joke." Mulvaney said he wants the CFPB to "protect people without trampling capitalism," and announced a 30-day freeze on any new regulations, rules, and guidance. He also told reporters Monday that "elections have consequences at every agency," and warned that anyone expecting the CFPB to operate under the Trump administration as it did under the Obama administration is "simply naive."

On Monday morning, English sent an email to CFPB staffers welcoming them back from the Thanksgiving holiday and signed it "acting director." Mulvaney one-upped her in a separate email and told staffers to "disregard any instructions you receive from Ms. English in her presumed capacity as acting director." Then, in a naked and delicious attempt to curry favor, he added that staffers were welcome to grab donuts from the fourth floor.

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Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.

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