Donald Trump Announces Major Move On Credit Cards For Millions

President Donald Trump has proposed a one-year cap of 10 percent on credit card interest rates, saying that Americans are being “ripped off.”

Why It Matters

Credit cards are used by millions of Americans. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported in March 2025 that nearly 3 in 4 Americans—or 74 percent—have at least one credit card, and credit cards account for 70 percent of retail spending.

The Federal Bank of St. Louis reports that rates currently average over 20 percent—so a federally enforced cap of 10 percent would be a significant dip in borrowing costs.

What To Know

“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 percent, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“AFFORDABILITY! Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%. Coincidentally, the January 20th date will coincide with the one-year anniversary of the historic and very successful Trump Administration.”

The president did not make it clear if he planned to use executive action to make good on his promise. Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email outside of regular working hours.

Across both sides of the aisle, lawmakers have shown they want to bring interest rates down for credit users.

Senator Bernie Sanders (an independent who generally caucuses with the Democratic Party) and Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican, have previously introduced bipartisan legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent for five years, explicitly requiring card issuers to comply as part of broader consumer relief efforts.

In the House, Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna have also put forward a bill proposing a 10 percent cap on credit card interest rates.

It’s not the first time the President has floated the idea of an interest cap. On the campaign trail for the 2024 election he also called for temporarily capping interest rates at 10 percent. Hours before his post on Friday, Sanders criticized Trump on X for not following through on the pledge to limit credit card interest rates.

But Trump’s promise has drawn ire from the banking world, saying it could narrow lending criteria and make it harder to Americans to be approved for borrowing.

The Trump administration last year scrapped an $8 cap on credit card late fees imposed under the Biden administration. At the time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated the rule would save families more than $10 billion a year by reducing average fees to about $32.

What People Are Saying

The Bank Policy Institute, American Bankers Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum and Independent Community Bankers of America said in a joint statement: “We share the President’s goal of helping Americans access more affordable credit. At the same time, evidence shows that a 10 percent 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.”

Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge fund manager and founder and chief executive of investment management company Pershing Square Capital Management, said on X: “Without being able to charge rates adequate enough to cover losses and to earn an adequate return on equity, credit card lenders will cancel cards for millions of consumers who will have to turn to loan sharks for credit at rates higher than and on terms inferior to what they previously paid. In order to bring down credit card rates, we need more innovation and competition among credit card lenders. Regulatory changes that enable new entrants could lead to a reduction in rates.”