The new boss at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had a jarring message for staffers Monday morning, in an internal memo leaked to Rolling Stone: “Stand down from performing any work task.” The message came from Russell Vought — a Project 2025 architect who was confirmed by the Senate last week to lead the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump White House.

From the moment the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened its doors in the summer of 2011, powerful critics have wanted to rein it in — and the regulator was one of the very first targets of Elon Musk’s scorched-earth overhaul of the US government.