Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren says the Trump administration will “have a fight on their hands” if it dismantles her brainchild, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, after firing the watchdog’s director.

Rohit Chopra has confirmed that he is no longer leading the agency responsible for regulating mortgages, car loans and other consumer finance as President Trump continues his purge of holdovers from the Biden administration.

Warren helped create the CFPB in 2011, highlighting in a Saturday statement how her pet agency has “returned over $20 billion to consumers since its founding – protecting Americans from junk fees, medical debt, and predatory lending.”

“Under Rohit Chopra’s leadership,” the Democrat stated, “the CFPB is holding Wall Street accountable for cheating hard-working families and preventing the de-banking of Americans across the country, including consumers locked out of the financial system due to overdraft fees, religious organizations, and conservatives.

“President Trump campaigned on capping credit card interest rates at 10% and lowering costs for Americans,” she added. “He needs a strong CFPB and a strong CFPB Director to do that. But if President Trump and Republicans decide to cower to Wall Street billionaires and destroy the agency, they will have a fight on their hands.”

Chopra’s tenure saw the removal of medical debt from credit reports and limits on overdraft penalties, all based on the premise that the financial system could be fairer and more competitive in ways that helped consumers. But many in the financial industry viewed his actions as regulatory overreach.

Chopra had remained on the job since Trump regained office on Jan. 20, but he confirmed the president fired him in a social media post on Saturday.

“It’s been an honor serving as your CFPB Director,” Chopra posted on X. “Every day, Americans from across the country shared their ideas and experiences with us. You helped us hold powerful companies & their executives accountable for breaking the law, and you made our work better.”

Chopra was notified of his firing in an email, according to a person familiar with the notice who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

In a letter sent to Trump Saturday, Chopra noted that the bureau was ready to work with his administration. He said the agency had prepared rules to block Russia, China and others from using data brokers to surveil Americans, and had put forth policies intended to prevent people from losing access to banking services for exercising their constitutional right to express their political or religious views.

Payday lenders objecting to a bureau rule limiting their ability to withdraw funds directly from borrower’s bank accounts saw the Supreme Court shoot down a legal challenge to the CFPB’s authority last May.

The Supreme Court’s ruling clarified that it is OK for the bureau to draw its budget from the Federal Reserve instead of the annual Congressional appropriations process.

Chopra told reporters after the decision that the bureau planned to beef up the size of its law enforcement office to a staff of 275 and address other matters like pawn shops, medical billing, credit reporting and financial data issues.

Warren has butted heads with Trump and some of his top officials including Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, over the CFPB since the president won November’s election.

In the weeks following the election, Musk and former DOGE co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy had targeted the CFPB as one of the many agencies they considered they would put on the chopping block, to reduce “governmental waste.”

“Delete CFPB,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X, in November. “There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.”

Ramaswamy echoed Musk’s stance on the independent agency that had a budget of about $760 million in the feds’ 2024 fiscal year which ended in September.

“This is how the deep state works: when they can’t censor your speech or freeze your financial transactions directly, they pressure private companies that they regulate to do it through the back door instead,” Ramaswamy posted on X.

“This is called fascism,” he added. “The only right answer: SHUT IT DOWN.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra, speaks from the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, April 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)