Trump administration accused of ‘bullying’ union leader at consumer protection agency

The Trump administration has been accused of “bullying and intimidation” after a labor union leader and critic was put under investigation and suspended from his job at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Stephen Wheeler, a data scientist at the agency since 2022 and chair of the CFPB union organizing committee, was placed on administrative leave effective immediately earlier this month. The union said it was not provided with any specific violations or given any details of the investigation.

The CFPB – conceived by the Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis – has long been a target of Republicans.

When Donald Trump appointed Russell Vought, architect of the rightwing manifesto Project 2025, to oversee the agency last February, Elon Musk posted, “CFPB RIP,” on X.

The labor union representing workers at the agency, the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 335, noted that Wheeler had been a vocal presence at union pickets, sitting behind Vought during his testimony in Congress in July, and had recently spoken with NPR about the forced relocation of staff at the agency.

Workers have viewed the relocation and return-to-office mandates at the agency as a means to force resignations, after an appeals court blocked attempted mass firings at the agency by the Trump administration in June 2026.

“An investigation with no stated scope or scale is no investigation – it’s a fishing expedition,” Wheeler said. “I have nothing to hide, and when the facts are examined this will be seen for what it is: bullying and intimidation for union activity and protected speech.”

Another union member and worker, Alexis Goldstein, was also put on administrative leave in February 2025 before she was fired in February 2026 after she confronted staff with Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), questioning their credentials in accessing data at the agency and recording their actions.

“CFPB is illegally retaliating against me for trying to do my job. I acted to protect the sensitive data of Americans and the trade secrets of some of the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions from being accessed by individuals from Doge without CFPB credentials and required training,” Goldstein said in a statement after her firing in February.

The union filed a grievance over her firing and is awaiting arbitration to begin, which has been delayed, according to the union, by the CFPB, which told the union the delay is due to an agency official who is on leave.

The Trump administration has attempted to dismantle the CFPB since the beginning of Trump’s second term. The office of management and budget director, Vought, called for the abolition of the agency. He halted most the work at there in February 2025.

The agency deleted nearly 4,000 webpages on its website earlier this year, including all press releases issued by the agency before February 2025.

The union has noted that for every $1 spent on the agency, it returns $2.80 to consumers, reimbursing at least $21bn since 2010 to consumers ripped off by corporate scammers.

Other workers at the CFPB criticized the investigation of Wheeler, alleging it was retaliatory and an intimidation tactic.

“Our union will not be cowed by these bush league tactics to silence us,” said Doug Wilson, a member of the union and employee at the agency, in a statement.

“If this administration thinks that mysterious investigations into public servants and union leaders like Steve [Wheeler] will intimidate the rest of us into silence, they clearly underestimated us once again,” added Tyler Creighton, another union member and employee at the agency, in a statement.

Ravisha Kumar, a third union member, added in a statement: “Yet again, here’s a poorly executed attempt by this administration to silence us through intimidation. Yet again, we’ll just get louder.”

The CFPB did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Reporting from The Guardian contributed to this story.