Mike Johnson Warns Trump’s Credit Card Plan Isn’t ‘Thought Through’ Enough

After President Donald Trump proposed to cap credit card interest rates at 10% on social media, House Speaker and faithful MAGA ally Mike Johnson called the President’s idea, “not thought through enough.”

Johnson’s comments, delivered to reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, marked a rare break from one of Trump’s most important allies in Congress. While the House Speaker said lawmakers should “think about” and “investigate” the idea, he stressed that an interest rate cap could produce “negative secondary effects,” including lenders pulling back or sharply reducing borrowing limits.

“One of the things the president probably had not thought through is when you bring interest rates down to 10% the problem is that the credit card companies would just stop lending money,” Johnson said.

Trump floated the plan on social media, writing “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%.”

His proposal landed amid plans from the Trump administration to decrease cost of living, a key aspect of his 2024 win, and it immediately drew attention because credit card annual percentage rates have hovered around record highs. Trump’s idea would also lower interest rates by half as the average interest rate on credit cards in November was 20.97%.

Johnson also explained that Congress would have to pass legislation to implement a nationwide cap and many are skeptical of the President’s proposal. JPMorgan Chase executives warned that a 10% cap would be “very bad for consumers” and “very bad for the economy,” saying banks would likely need to cut back credit availability and overhaul how they run their card businesses. JPMorgan CFO Jeremy Barnum also noted how little detail accompanied the proposal, describing the rollout as unusually abrupt and information poor.

The President’s proposal came days before his administration announced a controversial investigation into Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, for potential “abuse of taxpayer dollars.” The Department of Justice subpoenaed the Federal Reserve on Friday in connection with a criminal inquiry into Powell’s congressional testimony about cost overruns on a multibillion-dollar renovation of the Fed’s headquarters.

Powell alleged that the probe is politically motivated and retaliation for not complying with coercion from the Trump administration to lower interest rates. Johnson, however, defended the investigation, while emphasizing that it is “not really my lane.”