President Donald Trump’s stalled proposal to cap credit card interest rates is drawing support from voters across the political spectrum, but many fear he is not doing enough to advance this policy amid serious opposition from the country’s banking sector.
A new poll from the progressive advocacy groups Groundwork Collaborative and Protect Borrowers, the results of which were first shared with Newsweek, finds that 59 percent of voters back a 10 percent cap even if banks responded by tightening access to new credit, while 63 percent support the move even if this led to reduced or eliminated rewards programs.
“Majorities of voters across parties want relief from sky-high credit card interest rates,” said Groundwork’s senior adviser for economic policy Emily Divito.
“Nearly half of Americans are relying on credit cards as critical lifelines just to afford groceries, utilities, and other basic needs,” she told Newsweek. “When card companies are allowed to tack on exorbitant interest rates and fees, families get squeezed even more.”
Why It Matters
A temporary cap on rates was first floated by Trump on the campaign trail, and would mark a significant intervention in credit markets—one that has nonetheless won the support of lawmakers ordinarily far from his ideological orbit like Senators Bernie Sanders, an independent, of Vermont and Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren.
The idea is one of several Trump has proposed that is aimed at providing financial assistance to Americans ahead of the 2026 midterms, including an in-progress ban on “large institutional investors” purchasing single-family homes and directing agencies to purchase billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities to reduce home loan payments.
However, the credit card cap’s initial deadline of January 20 passed without any apparent change from U.S. banking majors, who have also warned that Trump’s plan—if implemented—could cut off access to credit for millions of Americans.
Newsweek has contacted the White House via email for comment.
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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in early January.
Trump later told reporters that those companies which failed to comply with his proposal for a temporary ceiling on interest rates would be “in violation of the law,” but issuers stressed that they would resist the policy while touting the potential consequences of such a move for consumers.
In January, the American Bankers Association published research showing that this would force up to 85 percent of accounts across the U.S. to be closed or have their credit limits “drastically reduced,” while potentially leaving as many as 159 million Americans unable to use their cards.
Speaking at last month’s World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, Switzerland, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that Trump’s plan would be an “economic disaster” and cut off access to credit for millions.
“The people crying the most won’t be the credit card companies, it will be the restaurants, the retailers, the travel companies, the schools, the municipalities, because people will miss their water payments,” he added.
But certain lawmakers have urged Trump to push this ahead despite the now-passed deadline and the sector’s dire projections.
“While the president dawdles, the big banks are coming out of the woodwork to warn of an ‘economic disaster’ if we cap credit card interest rates,” Warren wrote in a Fox News op-ed last month. “Give me a break. These are the most profitable financial institutions in the history of the world.”
The polling released Wednesday, based on responses from 1,170 likely voters gathered in February, shows that Americans are broadly unmoved by these arguments.
Some 61 percent said they agreed with the statement that the U.S. “can cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent without sacrificing rewards programs and perks,” over the notion that doing so “would hurt the ability for individuals and small business owners to access credit.”
Groundwork Collaborative told Newsweek that this data serves as a reflection of the dire state of consumers’ finances, with 48 percent saying that they are unable to pay off their credit card balances every month and 58 percent saying they use a credit card to purchase groceries at least once a month.
But while the White House previously told Newsweek it would be “working with Congress” to deliver “credit card interest relief,” the proposal for a 10 percent rate cap appears to have lost legislative momentum, going unmentioned in Trump’s record-breaking State of the Union address during which he was keen to tout his administration’s economic gains.
“If a credit card cap were a priority for the Trump administration, it should have been signed into law months ago,” Divito told Newsweek. “Trump has shown he can push his Republican allies in Congress to support his policies, but so far there has been no real action to make this a reality.”
What People Are Saying
Rodney Williams, cofounder of the community finance platform SoLo Funds, told Newsweek previously: “A 10 percent cap on credit card interest rates may seem like a way to cut borrowing costs, but at such low levels banks will find it difficult to price for the risk of lending to consumers with lower credit scores.”
“Faced with squeezed margins, lenders are likely to tighten underwriting, raise annual and other fees to compensate, and restrict or close accounts for higher-risk cardholders,” he added.
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren told CNBC in February: “[Trump has] been talking about capping credit card interest rates for well over a year. I know that, I’ve talked to him on the phone, and so far, nothing.
“A 10 percent cap on credit card interest rates for families that are carrying credit card balances would save them about $900 a year—that’s overall $100 billion for families in the United States—a good boost to the economy if we did that.”
Emily Divito, senior economic policy adviser at Groundwork Collaborative, told Newsweek: “Capping credit card rates could put hundreds of dollars back into the pockets of the nearly 50 percent of American families who don’t pay off their balance in full each month.”
What Happens Next
Despite their support for the plan, voters are largely skeptical of Trump’s eagerness to implement the cap.
Only 17 percent consider it “very likely” the president will “stay focused” on the proposal, while 32 percent view this as “somewhat likely.” This compares with the 24 percent and 22 percent who believe this is “not too likely” or “not likely at all,” respectively.
And a large majority of Republicans and Democrats—80 percent of voters overall—say that even if he succeeds on credit card interest rates, Trump would need to do more “to show he’s serious about bringing down costs.”
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