A shopper pays with a credit card at the San Francisco Farmers Market on March 27, 2025.
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President Donald Trump said Friday that he is calling for credit card interest rates to be capped at 10% for one year starting Jan. 20, but gave no details on how the plan would materialize or how he intends to get businesses to comply.
Mr. Trump made this promise during his 2024 campaign, which he won, but analysts dismissed it at the time, saying such a measure would require approval from Congress.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers expressed concern about high interest rates and called for action to be taken to address them. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in both the House and Senate.
There have been several legislative efforts in Congress to advance such proposals, but they have not yet become law, and President Trump has not expressed clear support for specific legislation since taking office.
Opposition politicians have criticized Republican Trump for failing to fulfill his campaign promises.
“Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, demand a one-year cap on credit card interest rates of 10%,” Trump wrote in an article for Truth Social, without providing further details.
President Trump added, “I want you to know that we will no longer allow the American people to be ‘ripped off’ by credit card companies.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said President Trump’s call is meaningless unless Congress passes the bill.
“Begging credit card companies to do better is a joke,” Warren said, criticizing President Trump’s efforts to gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. “I said a year ago that if President Trump was serious, I would work to pass a cap on interest rates.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the details of Trump’s call, but said on social media that the president had set a cap on interest rates without providing details.
Some of the major banks and credit card issuers in the United States include: american express, capital one financial, JP Morgan Chase, citygroup and bank of america He did not respond to requests for comment.
Some bank advocacy groups said in a joint statement that a 10% interest rate cap would “reduce credit availability” and “simply steer consumers to less regulated and more expensive alternatives.”
This statement was issued by the Consumer Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Forum, and the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Lawmakers express concerns about interest rates
Sens. Bernie Sanders (R-Vermont) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), fierce critics of President Trump, have previously introduced bipartisan legislation that would cap credit card interest rates at 10% for five years. The bill explicitly directs credit card companies to limit rates as part of broad consumer relief legislation.
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, and Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, also introduced legislation in the House that would cap interest rates on credit cards at 10%, reflecting interest across the aisle in combating high interest rates.
Bill Ackman, a billionaire fund manager who supported Trump in the last election, told TV show “X” that the president’s comments were “a mistake.”
Last year, the Trump administration moved to repeal credit card late fee rules from the era of former President Joe Biden.
The Trump administration had asked a federal judge to strike down a regulation capping credit card late fees at $8, citing an agreement with business and banking groups that say the rule is illegal. A federal judge later threw out the rule.
