Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Saturday, November 8th.

Today on Forbes, how Trump's Hatchetman is destroying consumer protections.

Two years ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, a federal financial regulatory agency,

announced it was forcing Toyota Motor Credit to give

consumers back tens of millions of dollars. In a press release citing consumers' complaints,

the CFPB said that while selling bundled auto insurance and car servicing products,

Toyota dealers had, quote, lied about whether these products were mandatory and sneakily included them

in contracts without borrowers knowing it. Even more maddening, when consumers called Toyota to

cancel the unwanted add-ons, representatives had been trained to keep promoting the products

until the customer asked to cancel three times. Then customers still couldn't cancel during those calls.

They had to take yet another step and submit a written request. Between 2016 and 2021,

Toyota funneled 118,000 calls to this hotline. In 2023, the CFPB ordered the company to give

customers back $48 million and pay a $12 million fine

for these and other violations. But earlier this year, the Trump administration, in its quest to

roll back financial regulation, erased that ruling, terminating Toyota's obligation to pay

consumers the $48 million.

The same thing happened to a CFPB settlement with large credit union Navy Federal.

The financial institution had agreed to give $80 million back to consumers for improperly

charging overdraft fees, while customers, including active duty service members and veterans,

showed a positive balance at the time of their transactions, in order that has since been reversed.

In permanently dismissing 22 CFPB enforcement actions, the Trump administration has caused

at least $120 million due to be paid to consumers to stay in company's pockets.

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