Trump Is Breaking His Word on Credit Card Regulation
Donald Trump has long claimed he wants to lower credit card interest rates. His regulators are intervening in a legal battle to do the opposite.
Trump regulators argued a Colorado law that would cap credit card interest rates cuts into credit card companies’ profit margins, forcing lenders to be more selective in extending credit to borrowers. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
A month before President Donald Trump renewed his calls last week to take on Americans’ crushing consumer debt by capping credit card interest rates, his administration quietly intervened in a legal battle to do the opposite.
In December, Trump’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which oversee the nation’s financial regulations, filed legal briefs in a case opposing a new Colorado state law that would rein in soaring interest rates on financial products, including credit cards.
Colorado’s effort shares similar aims as a 10 percent credit card interest rate cap that Trump has repeatedly claimed he wants to implement at the federal level, a policy championed by progressive lawmakers such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
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