Prez ‘drains’ consumer ‘swamp’

President Trump is picking another fight with the Washington swamp by naming his own man as interim boss of a federal agency conservatives hate.

“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, has been a total disaster as run by the previous Administrations pick,” Trump tweeted Saturday.

The bureau — set up in 2010 in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis — regulates consumer lenders and related industries. Conservatives complain it has too much power and too little congressional oversight.

Its leadership was put into play Friday by the resignation of director Richard Cordray. Before he left, Cordray named his chief of staff as his interim replacement, which he said is required under the 2010 law.

Trump wants budget director Mick Muvaney to be the agency’s interim boss. Mulvaney has called the agency “a sad, sick joke.”

Senior administration officials said Saturday that a 1998 law lets Trump put Mulvaney in the job — and that they won’t shy from a court fight.

“We have gone out of our way to avoid an unnecessary legal battle with Director Cordray,” one official said. “But his actions indicate that he wants to provoke one.”

The battle is temporary. Under the law Trump and the Senate pick Cordray’s permanent replacement.