Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said he looks forward to President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming administration on at least one thing: capping credit card interest fees.
Speaking with the New York Times‘s The Daily podcast Friday, Sanders said Trump’s campaign call for limits on credit card fees was “a very good idea.”
“If Trump, for example, follows through on his proposal to limit interest rates on credit cards to 10%, which is what he campaigned on, absolutely I will be there,” Sanders said.
“I think it’s a very good idea. I think it’s time we told the people on Wall Street they cannot charge the desperate working-class people who have a hard time paying their bill’s 25%, 30%, 40% interest rates.”
President Joe Biden’s administration tried to lower credit card late fees earlier this year, but a federal judge put a stop to his plans.
During his third run for president, Trump had promised to cap credit card interest fees.
“We’re going to cap it at around 10%. We can’t let them make 25% and 30%,” Trump said at a Long Island, New York, event in September. “While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates.”
The current average for credit card interest rates is 21.5%, according to Federal Reserve data. This figure is 6 percentage points higher than the rates were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, which Sanders called “immoral.”
Sanders posted his feelings about working with Trump on social media, saying he looks forward to working with the Trump administration on “fulfilling his promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.”
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“We cannot continue to allow big banks to make record profits by ripping off Americans by charging them 25 to 30% interest rates,” Sanders posted. “That is usury.”
I look forward to working with the Trump Administration on fulfilling his promise to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
We cannot continue to allow big banks to make record profits by ripping off Americans by charging them 25 to 30% interest rates.
That is usury.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) November 15, 2024
Sanders, 83, recently won reelection to serve another six years in the Senate.
