Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson voiced skepticism Tuesday on President Donald Trump’s move to temporarily cap credit card interest rates.
“I think that would probably deprive an awful lot of people of access to credit around the country,” Thune told reporters. “Credit cards would probably become debit cards.”
“That’s not something I’m out there advocating for — let’s put it that way,” he added.
Thune’s comments come after Trump posted on Truth Social that he was calling for a one-year cap of 10 percent interest on credit cards starting Jan. 20.
Johnson also appeared to tamp down the prospects for immediate action Tuesday, telling reporters he spoke to Trump about it on Monday. He called it among a “long list” of affordability ideas Trump has in mind.
“The president is the ideas guy,” Johnson said, adding later, “I wouldn’t get too spun up about ideas that are out of the box, that are proposed or suggested.”
Johnson also raised similar concerns as Thune, saying credit-card issuers “would just stop lending money” if rates are capped.
In addition to the proposed temporary cap on interest rates, Trump has also thrown his weight behind a long-controversial bill limiting credit-card merchant fees sponsored by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that has been the subject of intense financial industry lobbying since its introduction in 2022.
Republicans are on both sides of that bill, Thune noted, but he said he believed it would be up for a floor vote “at some point.”
“That’s what we do around here,” he said. “We cast hard votes.”
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.