President Donald Trump has called on credit card companies to cap interest rates at 10 percent for a year, effective from Jan. 20, without specifying how the proposal could be implemented or enforced.
“We will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies that are charging interest rates of 20 to 30% … AFFORDABILITY!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social late Friday.
The Trump administration has sought to highlight its actions on affordability in a midterm election year — even as analysts say the messaging could be muddled by the administration’s recent flurry of foreign policy moves. Critics have argued that a credit card rate cap would limit consumers’ access to credit.
The Bank Policy Institute, American Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum and Independent Community Bankers of America said in a joint statement Friday that a 10 percent cap “would reduce credit availability and be devastating for millions of American families and small business owners who rely on and value their credit cards.”
“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives,” the statement added.
Bill Ackman, a hedge fund billionaire who endorsed Trump’s 2024 candidacy, also expressed concerns.
In a social media post Friday, which was subsequently deleted, Ackman called the move “a mistake,” warning that credit card lenders could cancel cards for consumers if they could not charge rates “adequate enough to cover losses and to earn an adequate return on equity.”
In a subsequent post on Saturday morning, Ackman called Trump’s aim to reduce credit card interest rates “a worthy and important” goal, but added “my concern about capping rates at 10% is that doing so will inevitably cause millions of Americans to have their cards canceled as credit card companies lose the ability to adequately price subprime credit risk.”
Last year Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) introduced bipartisan legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, stating that with soaring bills, working families were in need of financial relief. The lawmakers said credit card companies that charged interest rates of more than 25 percent were “not engaged in the business of making credit available. They are engaged in extortion and loan sharking.” The bill faced opposition from banking groups, and has yet to progress in Congress.
Hours before Trump’s announcement, Sanders had criticized Trump on social media, saying Trump had failed to act on his promise to cap credit card interest rates, and calling it “unacceptable.”
On Friday evening, Hawley responded to Trump’s proposal, writing: “Fantastic idea. Can’t wait to vote for this.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) dismissed Trump’s proposal and said such a move would require legislation. “Begging credit card companies to play nice is a joke,” Warren wrote on X. “I said a year ago if Trump was serious I’d work to pass a bill to cap rates,” she said, adding that Trump “doesn’t care about affordability.”
Trump pledged to cap credit card interest rateswhile on the 2024 presidential campaign trail, but did not progress the issuein 2025. Last year, his administration supported the removal of a federal rule introduced under President Joe Biden that would have capped credit card late fees to $8.
Trump’s administration has also moved to weaken the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis, accusing the financial watchdog of overstepped its authority.
Total U.S. credit card debt stands at over $1 trillion, according to November data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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