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consumers
'This Is Your Money': Trump Assault on CFPB Has Cost Consumers $19 Billion
"When you're counting the way that costs have gone up for American families over the last year, be sure to include the cost of getting cheated," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Feb 10, 2026
The Trump administration's ongoing effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cost Americans nearly $20 billion in just a year, according to a report released Monday as Democratic lawmakers and campaigners marked the anniversary of the White House's hostile takeover and gutting of the CFPB.
The new report was assembled by Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an architect and champion of the CFPB. Citing bureau documents, publicly available data, and federal analyses, the report estimates that the Trump administration's mass dismissal of enforcement actions against abusive corporations, failure to distribute settlement payments, rescission of CFPB rules and guidance, and attack on the bureau's Consumer Complaint Program have collectively cost US consumers $19 billion over the past year.
That figure, the report emphasizes, "does not even begin to cover costs Americans could have been scammed out of due to a sidelined CFPB."
“Donald Trump promised to lower costs for Americans ‘On Day One.’ Instead, he is trying to shut down an agency that protects Americans from getting scammed out of their money by big banks and giant corporations,” Warren said in a statement. “As a result, Trump’s attempt to sideline the CFPB has cost families billions of dollars over the last year alone. We're going to keep fighting for the CFPB and against the billionaires who want to get rid of it.”
The report was released to mark one year since Russell Vought, the White House budget chief and acting CFPB director, ordered the bureau to effectively shut down its operations, including rulemaking and investigations into corporate wrongdoing.
Lawmakers have not confirmed Vought—a Project 2025 architect who has been explicit about his desire to kill the CFPB—as bureau chief, but he has remained in the acting director role thanks to White House legal maneuvers. In recent months, Vought has tried to starve the CFPB of funding—an effort that, for now, has been stymied in court.
"We want to put it out," Vought said in an interview late last year, boasting about mass firings that have left the consumer agency skeletal. "We will be successful probably within the next two or three months."
Another ridiculous price tag that Trump is forcing you to pay.
This is YOUR money.
You deserve a government that works for you, not against you and your financial interests. https://t.co/yd6hpYriXw
— Senator Andy Kim (@SenatorAndyKim) February 9, 2026
Prior to the start of President Donald Trump's second White House term, the CFPB had returned around $21 billion to US consumers scammed by banks and other corporations since the bureau's creation in the wake of the Great Recession.
"When you're counting the way that costs have gone up for American families over the last year, be sure to include the cost of getting cheated, because Donald Trump has driven that cost through the roof," Warren said during a rally with fellow Democratic lawmakers and advocates in Washington, DC on Monday.
"We are here today to remind Donald Trump and to remind all those Republicans who support him and enable him, to remind every one of them that they can kick this agency, they can try to hold this agency down, they can try to starve this agency, they can try to tie up the people who work at this agency, but at the end of the day, they will not kill this agency," said Warren. "We will stay in this fight, and we will win."
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How You Can Help Save Boreal Forests in 2026
Want an easy New Years' resolution? Buy 100% recycled or alternative fiber toilet paper instead of rolls made from virgin forest pulp.
Jan 01, 2026
North America’s boreal forests are crucial for wildlife and the climate, but we’re literally trashing them to make pulp for toilet paper and other disposable paper products.
Companies are clear-cutting a million acres a year, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
The northern boreal forests are Earth’s largest terrestrial biome. They’re the breeding grounds for 3-5 billion migrating birds that populate our backyards. And they’re a key carbon sink, storing 20% of global forest carbon and 50% of global soil carbon.
Studies show these forests have been overharvested and degraded to such a degree that the ecological damage will be difficult to reverse. They’re increasingly beset by global warming, melting permafrost, fires (including multi-year, spontaneously reigniting “zombie fires”), and pests, which threaten to destroy them and release their carbon back into the atmosphere.
If every American bought just one roll of toilet paper made from recycled paper rather than a conventional forest-fiber roll, it would save 1.6 million trees, 1 billion gallons of water, and 800 million pounds of greenhouse gases.
The United Nations recently warned of an approaching tipping point that could turn them from carbon sinks to carbon sources. That would be catastrophic. The recent COP30 climate summit, held in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, was billed as “the forest COP.” But its outcomes were dubious for tropical forests—and nonexistent for boreal forests.
But if climate delegates don’t protect them, consumers can—by buying 100% recycled or alternative fiber products instead of toilet paper made from virgin forest pulp.
A market for these alternatives is emerging. The US toilet paper industry is worth $42 billion, but a whopping 68% of US consumers surveyed want eco-friendly toilet paper made from recycled pulp, bamboo, or cornstalks.
If every American bought just one roll of toilet paper made from recycled paper rather than a conventional forest-fiber roll, it would save 1.6 million trees, 1 billion gallons of water, and 800 million pounds of greenhouse gases—the equivalent of taking 72,000 cars off the road for a year, NRDC found.
Eco-friendly toilet paper start-ups have a $1 billion toehold on the overall market so far—little more than 2%. But they’re growing fast. Imagine how many trees, how much water, and how many emissions we’d save if they gained a 68% share.
The big paper companies are imagining it, too. Procter & Gamble (P&G) makes Charmin, the top US toilet paper brand. This year it launched a bamboo version. That gives the company a green-sounding talk point, and a theoretical way into the growing alternative market. But it isn’t really available in stores and doesn’t do anything to change P&G’s bad practices.
It’s well documented that P&G makes regular Charmin by clear-cutting Canadian boreal forests for pulp, cutting down old-growth groves that have stood for a century or more. Only about 20% of these old-growth trees are left.
Any remnant wood left (called “slash”) after logging gets burned, and the land gets plowed and sprayed with glyphosate (RoundUp), eradicating formerly diverse ecosystems that caribou and birds depend on. They’re replaced with monoculture plantations of softwood trees planted in tight rows, worsening vulnerability to wildfires.
Yet P&G has the chutzpah to claim its slash-and-burn practices “absolutely prohibit deforestation” and “incorporate sustainability.” No wonder the company is being sued for greenwashing, with plaintiffs demanding it be held accountable for “egregious environmental destruction of the largest intact forest in the world” and making “false and misleading claims of environmental stewardship.”
Ultimately though, the power to change practices resides with consumers, not courts. Some 90 million Americans buy regular Charmin—and another 5 billion consumers worldwide buy P&G products. Collectively they have enormous power, provided they’re alerted to the problem and aren’t fooled by greenwashing tactics.
But if those conditions are met, consumers can save the boreal forests, one roll at a time.
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State AGs Sue Vought Over 'Unlawful' Scheme to Bankrupt Consumer Protection Bureau
"By refusing to fund the CFPB, even when legal and appropriate funding mechanisms are available, the Trump administration has sharpened its message that it does not care about affordability."
Dec 23, 2025
A coalition of attorneys general from across the US sued White House budget chief Russell Vought on Monday over his effort to completely starve the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of funding, a ploy that—if successful—would eliminate a key path of recourse for Americans harmed by corporate abuses.
The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Portland, Oregon by the top law enforcement officials of 20 states—including New York, California, Maine, and Hawaii—and the District of Columbia. The suit notes that Vought, in his capacity as acting director of the consumer bureau, "has worked tirelessly to terminate the CFPB’s operations by any means necessary—denying plaintiffs access to CFPB resources to which they are statutorily entitled."
The attorneys general specifically challenge Vought's "unlawful" refusal to request CFPB funding from the Federal Reserve. Under the law that established the consumer bureau, the agency receives funding from the Fed rather than congressional appropriations.
Vought has advanced a tortured definition of "earnings" to argue the Fed lacks funds from which the CFPB can draw, leaving him with no choice but to allow the agency he and his far-right allies have long opposed to languish.
The new lawsuit argues that Vought's position violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the US Constitution. If allowed to stand, Vought's refusal to seek CFPB funds would "make it all but certain that the CFPB will run out of funding completely in January 2026."
California Attorney General Bonta said in a statement Monday that the Trump administration’s "latest effort to destroy the CFPB means that hundreds of thousands of consumer complaints will fall on deaf ears."
"By refusing to fund the CFPB, even when legal and appropriate funding mechanisms are available, the Trump administration has sharpened its message that it does not care about affordability, that it does not care to be on the side of families and working Americans," said Bonta.
The CFPB has been a target of big banks and other powerful corporations since its creation in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The agency's success—it has returned more than $21 billion to consumers since 2011—has only intensified efforts by corporate-friendly lawmakers and right-wing bureaucrats to gut it.
Since taking control of the CFPB earlier this year, Vought has effectively shut down bureau operations and signaled a lax approach to enforcement.
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), an architect of the CFPB, applauded the state attorneys general for taking legal action against Vought.
“The Trump administration’s latest illegal attempt to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will hurt families in every state across the country—and now states are fighting back," said Warren. "Today’s new lawsuit underscores how illegally starving the agency of funding would turn off the consumer complaint database that has helped millions of Americans at the end of their rope after getting scammed."
"If courts uphold the law," she added, "they’ll reject this attempt to sideline the financial cop on the beat that has returned more than $21 billion directly to Americans cheated by big banks or giant corporations.”
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Consumer Sentiment Falls to Near-Record Low as Trump Wrecks Hope in US Economy
"Americans are losing faith in the economy because they're losing ground," said one policy expert. "Every day it becomes clearer that President Trump has no real interest in improving the lives of American families."
Nov 07, 2025
Consumer sentiment in the United States has fallen to a near-record low and Americans' view of current economic conditions has deteriorated under President Donald Trump's administration, which is overseeing and contributing to price increases, large-scale layoffs, looming insurance premium hikes, and devastating cuts to food aid.
The University of Michigan's closely watched Surveys of Consumers released updated data on Friday showing that consumer sentiment has fallen over 6% this month compared to October as Americans increasingly fear that the government shutdown will have "potential negative consequences for the economy."
"This month's decline in sentiment was widespread throughout the population, seen across age, income, and political affiliation," said Joanne Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers. "One key exception: consumers with the largest tercile of stock holdings posted a notable 11% increase in sentiment, supported by continued strength in stock markets."
The latest consumer sentiment survey posted a reading of 50.3, the second-lowest level since 1978.
The university's "current economic conditions" index, meanwhile, fell to an all-time low of 52.3 in November, down nearly 11% from last month.
"Middle-class and lower-income Americans are scared right now... about the shutdown, high costs, and potentially losing their jobs in the next 12 months," wrote Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.
Middle-class and lower-income Americans are scared right now...about the shutdown, high costs and potential losing their jobs in the next 12 months.
Consumer Sentiment fell to the 2nd lowest level ever in the U Michigan Survey of Consumers.
The "current economic conditions"… pic.twitter.com/0XGjf3DhFC
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) November 7, 2025
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in response to the consumer sentiment data that "Americans are losing faith in the economy because they’re losing ground."
"Every day it becomes clearer that President Trump has no real interest in improving the lives of American families," said Jacquez. "His economic mismanagement has left households buried under record debt and rising prices. It's no surprise consumer sentiment is at its lowest point since 2022, and households are turning to leaders who didn't just learn the word 'affordability.'"
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Failures of Trumponomics Glaring as Prices, Consumer Anxiety Climb Higher
"Working families are being pummeled by higher prices, and the Trump administration has no intention of fixing it."
Oct 24, 2025
Prices rose last month at a pace not seen since the beginning of the year and consumer sentiment fell to a five-month low in October as the Trump administration's tariff policies and the GOP's inflationary budget law take hold.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said Friday that the consumer price index (CPI) rose at a 3% annual rate in September, up from 2.9% in August. Gas prices rose 4.1% last month and were "the largest factor" in the monthly inflation increase, the agency said. Food prices rose 0.2% in September.
"Indexes that increased over the month include shelter, airline fares, recreation, household furnishings and operations, and apparel," BLS noted.
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in response to the new data that "prices continue to rise, and families can feel it every time they check out at the grocery store or fill up at the gas pump."
"Trump's chaotic economic policies continue to drive up costs for everyday essentials as the job market weakens," said Jacquez. "Working families are being pummeled by higher prices, and the Trump administration has no intention of fixing it."
Indivar Dutta-Gupta, an advisor with the advocacy group Community Change, said that "today's inflation report confirms the continued strain on American families under this administration's radical 'survival of the elitist' agenda, where the president's wealthy and well-connected friends thrive and the rest of us suffer."
"This administration and the Congress it controls have prioritized showering their billionaire friends with massive tax cuts while making it harder for regular people to afford basic necessities," Dutta-Gupta added. "Even this week, the administration has said that it will effectively break the law by refusing to fund vital food assistance, which tens of millions of struggling families rely on to manage the increasing cost of living imposed by the Trump administration."
The inflation data's release was delayed by the ongoing government shutdown, and the White House said Friday that the Labor Department likely won't publish CPI figures next month for the first time in more than 70 years.
The September inflation report came as the University of Michigan's closely watched Surveys of Consumers found that consumer sentiment this month dropped to its lowest level since May as Americans remain anxious over elevated and still-rising prices.
"Inflation and high prices remain at the forefront of consumers' minds," said Joanne Hsu, the director of Surveys of Consumers.
Heather Boushey, senior research fellow at the Reimagining the Economy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, said the Trump administration has brought the country to "an unnerving economic moment."
"Between high tariffs and the ways that ICE is rounding up employees at workplaces across the country, there are ongoing forces pushing prices upwards," said Boushey, "while the lack of a coherent economic agenda from the Trump administration threatens to push the economy into reverse."
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Trump FTC Lets Corporate Lobbyists Kill 'Massively Popular' Click-to-Cancel Rule in Court
Republicans on the Federal Trade Commission have "ensured that hardworking people will keep getting stuck with subscriptions they don't want or can't afford," said one consumer advocate.
Jul 09, 2025
Consumer advocates said Tuesday that the Trump administration is to blame for an appeals court decision that effectively killed the Federal Trade Commission's click-to-cancel rule, a Biden-era effort to stop companies from trapping consumers in subscriptions with onerous cancellation terms.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit vacated the rule entirely on procedural grounds on Tuesday, siding with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other corporate interests that claimed the FTC's process in crafting and finalizing the rule did not give industry sufficient "opportunity to assess" the agency's "cost-benefit analysis of alternatives."
After the rule was finalized last October, the FTC—then led by Lina Khan—said it had received more than 16,000 public comments on the proposal, which would have required companies to make it just as easy for consumers to cancel subscriptions as it was to enroll. The agency said the number of subscription-related public complaints rose to nearly 70 per day in 2024, indicating growing anger at companies' predatory tactics.
Khan wrote on social media Tuesday that public comments on the rule were "overwhelmingly" supportive and criticized the Trump FTC for giving industry groups time to block the effort. The rule was originally set to take effect on May 14, but the Trump FTC—now led by Republican Andrew Ferguson and two GOP commissioners—voted on May 9 to delay implementation, citing industry concerns that "it would take a substantial amount of time to come into compliance."
"The rule was set to go into effect in May but this FTC slow-walked it—and now a court has tossed it out, claiming industry didn't get enough of a say," Khan lamented.
Lee Hepner, senior legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project, said Tuesday that "the byzantine rulemaking process provides courts with infinite discretion to torpedo rules in service of deep-pocketed corporations and in spite of overwhelming public support."
"The commission received 16,000 public comments on its rule, yet the 8th Circuit has the temerity to suggest the commission failed to provide enough process to the Chamber of Commerce," Hepner added. "Congress gave the FTC the power to stop unfair and deceptive practices."
"If the FTC is serious about affordability for everyday Americans, it must reissue the rule immediately."
Mark Meador, one of just three commissioners left at the FTC following President Donald Trump's firing of the agency's two Democratic members earlier this year, declared following the appeals court decision that the click-to-cancel rule "isn't going into effect for one reason: The Biden FTC cut corners and didn't follow the law."
The American Prospect's David Dayen wrote in response that Meador, a commissioner "who has the ability to reissue the rule," is "more interested in cheering on judicial obstruction than simply saying he will reissue the rule."
Given that Ferguson and Republican FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak voted against finalizing the click-to-cancel rule last year, it is unlikely that they will support reviving the rule in the wake of the appeals court decision. Meador was not an FTC commissioner when the rule was finalized.
Nidhi Hegde, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, slammed the Trump FTC for delaying the rule's enforcement "long enough for big corporate lobbyists to win in court."
"It's bad enough that the Trump FTC has done nothing to bring down costs for the American people," Hegde said in a statement Tuesday. "Now, by slow-walking a simple, massively popular protection, they've ensured that hardworking people will keep getting stuck with subscriptions they don't want or can't afford from cable companies, gyms, and online services. If the FTC is serious about affordability for everyday Americans, it must reissue the rule immediately."
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'Appalling and Lawless': Trump Moves to Fire Democrats on Consumer Safety Panel
"I'll see him in court," said Richard Trumka Jr., one of the commissioners.
May 09, 2025
Three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission vowed on Friday to fight back after U.S. President Donald Trump moved to fire them, an effort that the trio described as part of the White House's unlawful assault on independent agencies.
Mary Boyle, Richard Trumka Jr., and Alex Hoehn-Saric are now listed on the CPSC's website as "former commissioners." The Washington Post reported that Trump moved to fire the commissioners "shortly after" the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency visited the agency on Thursday.
"The Democratic commissioners objected to two DOGE employees being formally detailed to the agency," the Post noted, citing Trumka's account.
Boyle and Trumka said they received emails from the White House late Thursday informing them of the president's bid to remove them from their posts. Hoehn-Saric said in a statement Friday that while he has yet to receive communication from the White House, the acting chair of the CPSC is "preventing me from executing my duties as commissioner based on an assertion that the president is also seeking my removal."
"The illegal attempt to remove me from the CPSC happened immediately after my colleagues and I took steps to advance our safety work and protect our staff from arbitrary firings," said Hoehn-Saric. "President Trump's action politicizes a critical independent public safety agency that was structured by law to avoid such interference."
All three of the Democratic commissioners indicated that they don't intend to leave the agency quietly, following in the footsteps of commissioners at other agencies who have challenged Trump's attempts to fire them, setting the stage for a high-stakes battle at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Trumka, son of the late labor leader Richard Trumka, said Friday that he has "a set term on this independent, bipartisan commission that does not expire until October of 2028." Last week, Trumka defied a Trump executive order instructing federal agencies to submit all proposed rules to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.
"I will continue protecting the American people from harm through that time," Trumka continued. "The president would like to end this nation's long history of independent agencies, so he's chosen to ignore the law and pretend independence doesn't exist. I'll see him in court."
Boyle, whose term was set to expire later this year, also signaled that she intends to remain at her post.
"Until my term as commissioner concludes,” Boyle said, "I will insist on following these time-tested principles, and I will use my voice to speak out on behalf of safety."
Consumer advocates voiced outrage in response to Trump's attempt to fire the CPSC commissioners.
"The illegal firing of CPSC commissioners is not just a brazen, unprecedented, and reckless assault on the rule of law, it is a direct threat to the lives and physical safety of Americans, especially our most vulnerable, infants and children," said Courtney Griffin, Director of Consumer Product Safety at the Consumer Federation of America. "The consequences may be measured in preventable injuries, hospitalizations, and lives lost."
William Wallace, director of safety advocacy for Consumer Reports, said in a statement that "this is an appalling and lawless attack on the independence of our country's product safety watchdog."
"Anyone who cares about keeping their family safe should oppose this move and demand that it be reversed," Wallace added. "This isn't really about the individual leaders, as commendable as they are. It's about whether Congress can maintain a federal agency that takes strong action to protect the public, based on scientific evidence and insulated from political whims."
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'Victory for Scammers' as Trump Fires 90% of Consumer Protection Agency Staff
"This is another assault on consumers and our democracy by Trump's lawless administration," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren. "We will fight back with everything we've got."
Apr 18, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday dealt what advocates fear could be a fatal blow to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by moving to fire 90% of its workforce, gutting an agency that has returned tens of billions of dollars to Americans defrauded by corporate abusers.
With no advance notice, roughly 1,500 CFPB employees received news Thursday afternoon that they're being fired, a major step toward billionaire Trump lieutenant Elon Musk's stated goal of deleting the bureau. The mass terminations, if upheld, would leave the CFPB with a "skeleton crew" of around 200 staffers.
"This is another assault on consumers and our democracy by Trump's lawless administration," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a key driving force behind the creation of the CFPB in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. "We will fight back with everything we've got."
The so-called reduction-in-force (RIF) notices came days after a federal court issued an order requiring the CFPB—currently headed by far-right Project 2025 architect Russell Vought—to conduct a "particularized assessment" for employees it wants to terminate.
"Today's RIF notice is not just an attack on the hardworking professionals who serve as our financial advocates, it is an assault on the financial prosperity of the American people."
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents CFPB staffers, said Thursday that it appears likely the bureau's leadership did not comply with the court order.
"Today's RIF notice is not just an attack on the hardworking professionals who serve as our financial advocates, it is an assault on the financial prosperity of the American people," said NTEU president Doreen Greenwald. "Make no mistake, the impacts of having less supervision of financial institutions will signal economic insecurity for many across this nation—and that’s exactly what this administration wants."
In a court filing on Thursday, NTEU argued it is "unfathomable that cutting the bureau's staff by 90% in just 24 hours, with no notice
to people to prepare for that elimination, would not 'interfere with the performance' of its statutory duties, to say nothing of the implausibility of the defendants having made a 'particularized assessment' of each employee's role in the three-and-a-half business days since the court of appeals imposed that requirement."
A federal court hearing on the RIF, which one journalist called "a victory for scammers," is scheduled for 11:00 ET on Friday.
The American Prospect's David Dayen noted Thursday that "there are at least 87 legal responsibilities under the purview of CFPB in the U.S. code, 13 of which require specific offices."
"The RIF leaves around 200 employees in place to carry out those 87 responsibilities, which stretches credulity," Dayen wrote.
Emily Peterson-Cassin, corporate power director at Demand Progress Education Fund, said in a statement Thursday that the Trump administration is "systematically gutting all efforts to protect service members, and all Americans, from fraud and scams while simultaneously letting Wall Street, Big Banks, and Big Tech off the hook."
"If the administration actually cared about them," said Peterson-Cassin, "they wouldn't have fired most of the people responsible for protecting them."
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Data Shows 'Shocking' Consumer Sentiment Plunge as Trump Economic Chaos Takes Hold
"Bloodbath of a consumer sentiment print," said one policy expert. "People hate the Trump economy."
Mar 14, 2025
Data published Friday shows that U.S. consumer sentiment cratered in early March to its lowest level since late 2022 as President Donald Trump's erratic tariff policies and assault on the federal government—the nation's largest employer—spurred far-reaching economic chaos.
The University of Michigan's closely watched consumer confidence gauge shows that sentiment "slid another 11% this month, with declines seen consistently across all groups by age, education, income, wealth, political affiliations, and geographic regions."
"While current economic conditions were little changed, expectations for the future deteriorated across multiple facets of the economy, including personal finances, labor markets, inflation, business conditions, and stock markets," said Joanne Hsu, director of the university's Surveys of Consumers. "Many consumers cited the high level of uncertainty around policy and other economic factors; frequent gyrations in economic policies make it very difficult for consumers to plan for the future, regardless of one's policy preferences."
"Consumers from all three political affiliations are in agreement that the outlook has weakened since February," Hsu added. "Despite their greater confidence following the election, Republicans posted a sizable 10% decline in their expectations index in March. For Independents and Democrats, the expectations index declined an even steeper 12% and 24%, respectively."
The survey also found that consumer inflation expectations jumped to their highest level since November 2022, an indication that Americans are concerned about the impact that Trump's trade war will have on prices, which the president promised during his campaign to bring down.
Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the Groundwork Collaborative, said in a statement that the "shocking consumer sentiment numbers are a referendum on the president’s mishandling of the economy, just 54 days into office."
"Working families are longing for stability as their grocery bills and rent payments continue to climb, but Trump's chaotic approach to the economy has them feeling more uncertain than ever," said Jacquez. "Consumers are rightly terrified about what lies ahead. The administration is more focused on gutting Social Security to pay for tax giveaways to billionaires and corporations than they are making life more affordable for working families."
The new consumer survey data comes a week after a Labor Department report showed that the U.S. added significantly fewer jobs than expected in February, which one economist described as "the calm before the storm" as the Trump administration fires tens of thousands of federal workers, fuels widespread unease and confusion with his tariff threats, and backs devastating cuts to Medicaid and other key programs.
"The administration seems determined to squander and wreck the strong economy," Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, wrote earlier this week. "Each of the individual policies they are pursuing—illegal layoffs of federal workers, mass deportations, constant threats and retractions of broad-based tariffs, and Medicaid spending cuts—would be bad for the economy. But each policy is also being pursued with maximum levels of chaos and incoordination, creating unprecedented levels of economic uncertainty. This uncertainty is itself a serious economic threat."
"Absent a radical reversal of the current policy agenda, the U.S. will be a poorer country at the end of Trump's term than it should have been," Bivens added. "The only open question is how rapidly this de-growth will happen, whether more quickly through a sharp recession or more slowly as the supply destruction outpaces demand destruction."
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'No One Voted for This': #TeslaTakedown Actions Pick Up Steam
"We need an alternative to watching things unravel from our couches," said one of the organizers behind the protests.
Mar 05, 2025
Protests at Tesla showrooms and dealerships that are united by the slogan #TakedownTesla are picking up steam—with over 65 actions planned around the country and in Europe through the end of this week, and dozens scheduled for Saturday alone.
Tesla, billionaire Elon Musk's electric vehicle company, has become a site of resistance in the growing movement against the GOP megadonor's central role in the second Trump administration.
Since Trump's inauguration, Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have helped oversee punishing cuts to the federal workforce, infiltrated government agencies, and gained access to computer systems with sensitive personal information.
Because Musk is unelected, the protest movement urges people to make their voices heard as consumers—by selling their vehicles, getting rid of their stock in Tesla, and showing up to protest.
Already, protests have taken place in Devon, Pennsylvania; Berkley, California; Tucson, Arizona; Washington, D.C., and elsewhere. Signs at protests include messages likes "Musk is the Fraud" and "Tesla Funds Fascists," in part a reference to Musk's apparent Nazi salute during a post-inauguration celebration.
"No One Voted for This," assert the organizing materials provided on the #TeslaTakedown website.
Actor and director Alex Winter, one of the core organizers behind the protests and the creator of the movement's website, said that #TakedownTesla started on Bluesky between friends and activists and grew, according to Business Insider. It grew after Winter created the website to help centralize the effort.
"There have now been protests outside of Tesla locations in over 100 cities, and the movement is picking up speed and going global," wrote Winter in a piece for Rolling Stone that was published on February 21.
"We need an alternative to watching things unravel from our couches, that inspires hope and shows that we still have the capacity to oppose those who want to tear the fabric of our society apart and extract their own benefit from the wreckage," he continued.
Tesla's stock experienced a bump after Trump's election, but the company's share price has plummeted more than 40% from it's post-election peak in December, wiping out those gains. The tumbling of its stock meant that February was Tesla's second-worst month on record, only eclipsed by the 37% loss the stock experienced in December 2022, according to Yahoo Finance.
In Europe, where Musk has promoted far-right political parties, Tesla sales have slumped.
On Monday, one observer shared a visual of Tesla's stock declining and wrote "Turns out pissing off a good deal of the global population isn't good for business," along with #TeslaTakedown.
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