House Speaker Mike Johnson openly broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday, rejecting President Donald Trump’s recent call for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates and suggesting the administration hadn’t fully considered the economic fallout.
In a rare public divergence from the President’s agenda, Johnson signaled that the House has no plans to take up the legislation. He warned reporters that while Trump is an “ideas guy” focused on affordability, this specific proposal carries dangerous “unintended consequences” for the very people it aims to assist.
“You’ve got to be very careful if you go forward in that,” Johnson said Tuesday regarding the push to slash rates. “What some of the experts have said… is if you do that, then the credit card companies would stop lending money.”
READ: Trump Drops Financial Bombshell: 10% Interest Rate Cap Coming For Credit Cards
Johnson’s comments effectively stall the initiative before it can gain momentum on Capitol Hill, highlighting a growing rift between populist economic goals and traditional conservative fiscal policy.
Senate Leadership Joins the Blockade
Johnson is not standing alone in his opposition. Senate Majority Leader John Thune offered an even starker prediction Tuesday, arguing that a government-mandated price control would decimate the lending market.
“I think that would probably deprive an awful lot of people of access to credit around the country,” Thune told the press, adding that under such a cap, “credit cards would probably become debit cards.”
The Proposal
The swift rejection from GOP leadership comes just days after President Trump unveiled the plan on Truth Social. Citing the one-year anniversary of his inauguration on January 20, 2026, Trump called for a temporary, 12-month freeze on interest rates, capping them at 10%.
The President argued the move is necessary to stop banks from “ripping off” Americans with rates that currently average nearly 24%, according to data from LendingTree. Trump blasted the high fees as “festering” issues left over from the Biden years.
A Bizarre Political Alignment
The debate has created strange bedfellows in Washington. While Republican leadership aligns with the banking lobby—which warns the cap will force low-income borrowers toward predatory payday lenders—Trump has found allies on the progressive left.
Populist Republican Senator Josh Hawley backed the President, using rhetoric nearly identical to that of longtime banking critics Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
“President Trump is right: working Americans are drowning in record credit card debt while the biggest credit card issuers get richer,” Hawley stated, calling the current system “exploitative.”
Despite this populist support, the American Bankers Association (ABA) maintains that the math doesn’t work. In a statement released Friday, the industry group warned that the cap would be “devastating” for small business owners and families who rely on credit availability to manage cash flow.
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