As Election Day 2024 approached, Donald Trump started throwing around weird promises at a frantic pace. The Republican’s list of random, poorly thought-out gimmicks offered in the final weeks of the contest included offering free IVF treatments, defraying the costs of child care expenses with imaginary tariff money, cutting consumers’ car insurance bills in half and even eliminating the Department of the Interior for reasons that didn’t make any sense.
But among the deluge of panic-stricken proposals, one stood out for me: In September 2024, the then-candidate declared that he wanted to see a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates — an idea he appeared to take seriously for a day or two before quietly dropping it.
Evidently, it’s back. On Friday night, the president published an item to his social media platform that read, in part:
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. 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%.
At this point, we could talk about how, if Trump were serious about helping consumers who’ve been ripped off by credit card companies, he could try protecting, instead of destroying, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We could also talk about the fact that there’s been pending legislation on this for months, which the White House could endorse but hasn’t.
We could even talk about how Joe Biden did a heck of a lot more to help credit card customers than Trump has ever done.
But there’s a more foundational problem to consider: Compelling financial giants to lower their interest rates requires an act of Congress, a regulatory action or both.
Trump can “call for” anything he wants, but the chest-thumping rhetoric is meaningless and hollow as far as policymaking goes.
Whether the president understands this is an open question.
Trump spoke briefly with reporters on Sunday night aboard Air Force One, where someone asked him, “The announcement on the cap on credit card interest rates that you put out on Friday, what happens if the credit card companies don’t comply?”
The Republican replied, “Well, then they’re in violation of the law,” adding that those who fail to comply should expect “very severe things.”
Except that’s not how we do things in this country. A president can’t publish a vague and poorly written statement to social media, expressing a policy preference, and then tell a private industry that the missive reflects “the law.”
In authoritarian systems, strongmen bark orders and create laws by fiat. In the United States, as our sitting president really ought to understand by now, there’s quite a bit more to it.
If Trump is looking to give consumers a break, great. But pretending tweets and laws are the same thing won’t help anyone.
