Republicans fracture as Trump pushes bold new | Political News

Republicans in Congress are growing more divided over a proposal made by Donald Trump that would give Americans some curiosity aid.

GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have been unenthusiastic about the president’s call to cap credit card interessts charges to 10% for a 12 months, a proposal he made in early January over a Truth Social post.

Senate Majority Whip John Thune of South Dakota said the cap is “not something I’m out there advocating for. Let’s put it that way,” he told Politico.

Trump is calling for the cap because credit card companies have “really abused the public” while “charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30 percent, and even more.”

He first talked about an curiosity restrict on the marketing campaign path in September 2024, calling it non permanent aid while “working Americans catch up.”

The New York Federal Rerseve has found that credit card debt has surged, with total housealnd balances hitting a record $1.23 million. Meanwhile, delinquencies and defaults have also grown.

Sen. Mike Rounds, of South Dakota, cautioned that capping interest rates could reduce access to credit.

“Once you start talking about that, you also start talking about limiting the number of individuals that might be eligible for getting credit,” he said.

Sen. Thom Tillis, of North Carolina, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said he was “totally against” limiting interest rates, while Sen. Pete Ricketts, of Nebraska, warned of “unintended consequences” that could “cut off credit from Americans.”

While Trump’s proposal has fallen flat with Republican lawmakers, it has drawn praise from unlikely supporters.

Democratic Socialists Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders have each applauded Trump’s call to cap interest rates.

“I’ve to admit, there’s one issue that Trump has recognized that does make sense. He is true when he says that big banks are ripping off the American people with outrageously high credit card rates of interest,” the Vermont senator wrote in a Fox News column. “In 2024, credit card firms raked in more than $190 billion from curiosity and charges charging obscenely high rates of interest, while bombarding Americans with roughly 3 billion solicitations. Today, as a end result of their efforts to addict Americans into buying their high-interest plastic, Americans are drowning in a file $1.23 trillion in credit card debt”

In an interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, New York City Mayor Mamdani conceeded that Trump’s interest rate cap proposal was one thing the president is doing right, an endorsement that Trump expected.

“I do know it is kind of like… it sounds just like the mayor of New York possibly got here up with that,” Trump told CNBC’s Joe Kernen.