Student loan watchdog pens scathing rebuke of the Trump administration as he resigns in protest

In a scathing letter addressed to Mick Mulvaney, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Seth Frotman, the official charged with regulating the student loan industry, said the agency “has turned its back on young people and their financial futures.”

Frotman accused the CFPB, under Trump, of betraying student borrowers, reports NPR. He announced that he's resigning in protest.

“Unfortunately, under your leadership, the Bureau has abandoned the very consumers it is tasked by Congress with protecting,” he wrote. “Instead, you have used the Bureau to serve the wishes of the most powerful financial companies in America.”

NPR notes that since 2011, the CFPB has processed more than 60,000 student loan complaints, returning more than $750 million to borrowers wronged by the student loan industry. The office also sued for-profit colleges like ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges for predatory practices.

The Trump administration appears to have undermined the student loan watchdog in a variety of ways. The Department of Education decided to stop sharing information with the office.

“The Bureau’s current leadership folded to political pressure… and failed borrowers who depend on independent oversight to halt bad practices,” Frotman said in his letter.

Before he was tapped to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mulvaney called the organization “a joke … in a sick, sad kind of way.”