Donald Trump announced a one-year cap that would limit credit card interest rates to 10% this week, in a move that has prompted mixed reaction from lawmakers and beyond.
The president’s social media post on Friday night said the restriction would take effect on 20 January, but he did not provide specifics on how the government would implement it or ensure that companies comply.
“Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be ‘ripped off’ by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“Coincidentally, the January 20th date will coincide with the one year anniversary of the historic and very successful Trump Administration.”
During his campaign for a second term, Trump said he would implement such a cap, as American credit card debt hit a record of more than $1.1tn. US credit card debt surpassed that and reached a whopping $1.17tn in the third quarter of 2024, growing from $770bn in the first quarter of 2021.
After not seeing action on that campaign promise, senators Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley introduced a bipartisan bill in February 2025 to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for the next five years.
“When large financial institutions charge over 25 percent interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available. They are engaged in extortion and loan sharking. We cannot continue to allow big banks to make huge profits ripping off the American people. This legislation will provide working families struggling to pay their bills with desperately needed financial relief,” the lawmakers wrote in a statement announcing the bill.
With major opposition from banking groups, the bill has not progressed in Congress.
Just one day before Trump’s announcement, Sanders criticized Trump for not fulfilling his campaign pledge.
“Trump promised to cap credit card interest rates at 10% and stop Wall Street from getting away with murder,” Sanders wrote on X on Friday. “Instead, he deregulated big banks charging up to 30% interest on credit cards.”
Hours later, the president made the announcement, drawing pushback from billionaire hedge fund manager and Trump supporter Bill Ackman.
Ackman initially posted, then deleted, a tweet that called Trump’s announcement “a mistake” and warned that credit card lenders could cancel consumer cards if they couldn’t charge rates “adequate enough to cover losses and to earn an adequate return on equity”.
“I think President @realDonaldTrump’s goal of reducing credit card interest rates is a worthy and important one,” Ackman later posted on X on Saturday. “My concern about capping rates at 10% is that doing so will inevitably cause millions of Americans to have their cards cancelled as credit card companies lose the ability to adequately price subprime credit risk.”
Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts, also expressed skepticism about whether Trump could implement such a cap without approval from Congress.
“Begging credit card companies to play nice is a joke. I said a year ago if Trump was serious I’d work to pass a bill to cap rates,” Warren said in a statement.
“Since then, he’s done nothing but try to shut down the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau]. Trump doesn’t care about affordability. Americans know a fraud when they see one.”
Much like the response to Sanders and Hawley’s bill, more opposition was espoused by the Bank Policy Institute, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Financial Services Forum and Independent Community Bankers of America, which issued a joint statement about the announcement: “We share the President’s goal of helping Americans access more affordable credit. At the same time, evidence shows that a 10% interest rate 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, the very consumers this proposal intends to help. If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives. We look forward to working with the administration to ensure Americans have access to the credit they need.”
In contrast, Hawley lauded the move and wrote on X: “Fantastic idea. Can’t wait to vote for this.”
