The Announcement
President Trump said Friday he was calling for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates at 10% starting January 20. But he did not provide details on how his plan would come to fruition or how he planned to make companies comply.
"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%," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be 'ripped off' by Credit Card Companies," he added.
The Problem
Trump also made the pledge during the 2024 campaign, which he won. But analysts dismissed it at the time, saying such a step required congressional approval.
In his post, Trump did not offer explicit support to any specific bill. There have been some legislative efforts in Congress to pursue such a proposal, but they are yet to become law.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on details of the call from Trump. It said on social media without elaborating that the president was capping the rates.
The Congressional Reality
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said Trump's call was meaningless without a bill being passed by 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. She criticized Trump's attempts to gut the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Opposition lawmakers have criticized Trump, a Republican, for failing to deliver on his campaign pledge.
The Bipartisan Bills
Lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties have raised concerns about high rates and have called for those to be addressed. Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, have previously introduced bipartisan legislation to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for five years. This bill explicitly directs credit card companies to limit rates as part of broader consumer relief legislation.
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida have also introduced a House bill to cap credit card interest rates at 10%, reflecting cross-aisle interest in addressing high rates.
The Banking Response
Some major U.S. banks and credit card issuers like American Express, Capital One Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America did not respond to a request for comment.
Some banking advocacy groups said in a joint statement that a 10% interest rate cap would "reduce credit availability" and "only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives."
The statement came from the Consumer Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, American Bankers Association, Financial Services Forum and Independent Community Bankers of America.
The Criticism
Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump in the last elections, said on X the president's call was a "mistake."
The Irony
Last year, the Trump administration moved to scrap a credit card late fee rule from the Biden era.
The Trump administration asked a federal court to throw out a regulation capping credit card late fees at $8, saying it agreed with business and banking groups that alleged the rule was illegal. A federal judge subsequently threw out the rule.
The Bottom Line
Trump called for a one-year 10% credit card rate cap starting January 2026 without providing implementation details or supporting specific legislation, prompting Warren to dismiss it as "meaningless" while banking groups warn it would reduce credit availability despite bipartisan bills already introduced by Sanders, Hawley, Ocasio-Cortez and Luna.
