WASHINGTON — With emails, tweets and doughnuts, the two dueling acting directors battled for control of the nation’s top financial watchdog agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, on Monday.

Leandra English, who was elevated to interim director of the bureau late last week by its outgoing director, sent staff an email offering Thanksgiving wishes. President Donald Trump’s choice for the role — White House budget director Mick Mulvaney — then emailed staff to tell them to “disregard” any instructions from English.

Laying down markers in what has quickly become a war of optics, both signed their missives “Acting Director.”

English has filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order to block Mulvaney from taking over the bureau. Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee approved recently by the Senate, will hear arguments on the case late Monday afternoon.

Mulvaney, speaking to reporters at the bureau, announced he was imposing a 30-day freeze on hiring and new rulemaking.

At the center of the controversy are two laws: the Dodd-Frank Act, the law passed after the financial crisis that created the bureau, and the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which gives the president authority to appoint temporary department heads while their permanent nominees are approved by the Senate.

While the Vacancies Act does allow a president to appoint acting directors at agencies like the CFPB, the Dodd-Frank Act has specific language that seems to indicate that only a deputy director can step into the acting director position. English was elevated to the deputy director position shortly before Cordray resigned.