Mark Cuban mocks Trump for going too far on credit card interest rates

Cuban, a longtime Trump opponent, attacked the former president ahead of Trump's scheduled economic speech in Savannah, Georgia, late Tuesday afternoon. Cuban had previously supported Harris' candidacy and discussed ideas with her political team.

“They have a whole political team. When I talk to them, it always comes down to talking to the political team, the one in charge of health care, the one in charge of venture capital, the one in charge of startups – whatever – and I get a serious, well-thought-out response,” Cuban said. “That's the opposite of what Donald Trump does. He says things off the cuff that are ridiculous, if not crazy.”

At a rally in New York last week, Trump floated the idea of ​​temporarily capping credit card interest rates at “around 10 percent.” Such a law would have to be passed by Congress, but it fits into his campaign's broader appeal to the working class.

“As working Americans catch up, we're going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates,” Trump said on Sept. 18. “We can't let them earn 25 or 30 percent.”

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Cuban pointed out that Trump's plan goes beyond that of Senator Bernie Sanders, who proposed a 15 percent cap on credit card interest rates in May 2019 in a bill he co-authored with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

“I mean, Bernie Sanders literally only proposed a 15 percent cap. So now Donald Trump is more involved in price caps and price controls than the self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders,” Cuban said. “And I think that says so much about how far Donald has gone in his socialist and communist tendencies, right? I know it sounds weird and a little bit out there, but it's true.”

Trump's campaign team responded that Cuban had “no idea what he was talking about.”

“If he actually looked at her unsuccessful record as vice president and listened to what she said, he would know that her policies will destroy our country and the American dream for hard-working families,” Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign communications director, said in a statement to Business Insider.

Trump's proposal surprised some conservatives, but Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri had proposed an 18 percent cap last fall. The Wall Street Journal editorial board, often seen as a mouthpiece for establishment Republicans, blasted the idea as “a price control on credit.”

“Why do Trump and Sanders think it's helpful to restrict access to credit and send people to the pawn shop or leg breaker instead? Credit card companies could respond by raising fees, as they did with free checking accounts after Democrats regulated debit card fees in 2010,” the committee wrote.

Experts say credit card companies would likely respond to an interest rate cap by making it harder for some people to access credit.

“There's no doubt that a 10% interest rate cap would restrict lending among credit card issuers while they figure out how to continue to make money in this new normal,” Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree, told CNN.

Interest is extremely lucrative for credit card companies. A 2023 report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that credit card companies charged Americans $105 billion in interest and over $25 billion in fees in 2022.

Trump's campaign defended his proposal by pointing out that credit card debt is at a record high. According to the New York Federal Reserve, Americans have $1.14 trillion in credit card debt. The interest rates Americans are paying on that debt are also now higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Under Kamala Harris, credit card debt is at historic highs as wages have failed to keep pace with inflation,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement. “That's why President Trump has promised to cap interest rates at 10% to provide temporary and immediate relief to hard-working Americans who are struggling to make ends meet and cannot afford high interest payments on top of skyrocketing mortgage, rent, food and gas costs.”