Mark Cuban Criticizes Trump for excessive Credit Card Interest Rates

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban on Tuesday teed off on Donald Trump's proposal to cap bank card rates of interest at 10% and the previous president's broader financial agenda.

“Next, in the ‘what the hell is he thinking list?' is the 10% price cap on credit card interest rates,” Cuban mentioned throughout a press name hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris' marketing campaign.

Cuban, lengthy a Trump antagonist, tore into the previous president forward of Trump's scheduled financial deal with in Savannah, Georgia, later Tuesday afternoon. Cuban beforehand endorsed Harris' candidacy and has mentioned concepts along with her coverage staff.

“They have a whole policy team. I know when I've had conversations with them, you know, it's always gone back to, let's talk to the policy team responsible for healthcare, responsible for venture capital, responsible for startups — whatever it may be — and I get back a serious, well-studied response,” Cuban mentioned. “That's the antithesis of what Donald Trump is doing. He says things off the top of his head that tend to be ridiculous, if not insane.”

During a rally final week in New York, Trump floated the concept of briefly capping bank card rates of interest at “around 10%.” He would wish Congress to cross such a legislation, but it surely suits inside his marketing campaign's broader outreach to working-class voters.

“While working Americans catch up, we're going to put a temporary cap on credit-card interest rates,” Trump mentioned on Sept. 18. “We can't let them make 25% and 30%.”

Cuban identified that Trump's plan exceeds that of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who in May 2019 proposed capping bank card rates of interest at 15% in laws he labored on with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

“I mean, literally, Bernie Sanders suggested a cap of only 15%. So now you've got Donald Trump getting involved in price caps and price controls to a greater extent than self-described socialist Bernie Sanders,” Cuban mentioned. “And I think that just says so much about how far Donald has gone to his socialist and communistic tendencies, right? I know it sounds funny and a little bit out of whack, but it's true.”

In response, Trump's marketing campaign mentioned Cuban “has no idea what he is talking about.”

“If he actually looked at her failed record as vice president and listened to what she says, he would know her policies will destroy our country and the American dream for hardworking families,” Trump marketing campaign communications director Steven Cheung mentioned in an announcement to Business Insider.

While Trump's suggestion caught some conservatives off guard, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Republican, proposed an 18% cap final fall. The Wall Street Journal editorial board, typically thought of the voice of firm Republicans, panned the concept as “a price control on credit.”

“Why do Messrs. Trump and Sanders think it's helpful to limit credit access and send folks to the pawn broker or leg breaker instead? Card companies might respond by raising fees, which is what happened to free checking after Democrats regulated debit swipe charges in 2010,” the board wrote.

Experts have mentioned credit card companies would seemingly reply to an curiosity cap by making it tougher for some individuals to entry credit score.

“There's no question that with a 10% rate cap, card issuers would put the clamps down on credit while they figure out how to continue making money in this new normal,” Matt Schulz, chief credit score analyst at LendingTree, instructed CNN.

Interest charges are extraordinarily profitable for bank card corporations. A 2023 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report discovered that in 2022 bank card corporations charged Americans $105 billion in curiosity and greater than $25 billion in charges.

Trump's marketing campaign defended his proposal, stating that bank card debt is at a report excessive. According to the New York Federal Reserve, Americans have $1.14 trillion in bank card debt. The rates of interest Americans pay on that debt are additionally larger now than they have been earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Under Kamala Harris, credit card debt is at an all-time high as wages have not kept up with the pace of inflation,” Trump marketing campaign nationwide press secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned in an announcement. “That's why President Trump has promised to cap interest rates at 10% to provide temporary and immediate relief for hardworking Americans who are struggling to make ends meet and cannot afford hefty interest payments on top of the skyrocketing costs of mortgages, rent, groceries and gas.”