Donald Trump managed to roll out a new idea this week, announcing that he wants to impose a temporary 10% cap on credit card interest rates. The former president made the declaration at a rally, and his audience seemed quite impressed with the proposal, which the Republican characterized as a sure thing.
Donald Trump is so desperate he is proposing capping credit card interest rates at 10%. This is total BS. 1. He has no power to do it. 2. It is a price cap which he says he doesn’t like. 3. If he means it why didn’t he do it during the pandemic. 4. He will back away from this so… pic.twitter.com/p1tJzf3W4m
— Jim Boyle (@JimGBoyle) September 19, 2024
It prompted The Wall Street Journal to publish an analysis of the candidate’s pitch, describing the proposal as a long shot.
Borrowers in lower- and middle-income households who carry balances would benefit the most from caps on credit-card charges. But they would also be the first ones banks would stop lending to if Trump’s cap were passed, said David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, an industry publication. “Wall Street banks would say, how much further risk do I want to bring on given the fact that my revenue is shrinking?” Robertson said. “That’s where the rubber meets the road.” Banks might also impose other fees to make up for the lost revenue, he said.
There’s nothing wrong with this analysis, and I completely understand why the WSJ published an article about Trump’s idea. He is, after all, a major-party presidential nominee who might very well be back in the White House in January.
But it’s also worth taking a moment to emphasize a key point: Trump’s policies aren’t actual policies. There’s no point in taking these ideas seriously, because Trump doesn’t take them seriously.
On the contrary, we’ve reached a point in the presidential race in which the Republican, frustrated by his standing in the polls, fearing a possible defeat and feeling increasingly desperate, is starting to blurt out all kinds of ideas without vetting or forethought.
Earlier this week, for example, Trump published an item to his social media platform vowing that he’ll cut consumers car insurance bills in half. Can he do that? No. Does he have any meaningful ideas about pursuing such a goal? No. Has he mentioned it since? No. Will anyone remember this a month from now? Probably not.
And therein lies the point. Trump continues to bombard the public with panic-stricken proposals — I’m using the word “proposals” loosely — not because he intends to implement them, but apparently because he thinks they might help squeeze a few more votes out of people who don’t know better. Indeed, it’s been difficult to keep up with the flurry of random ideas the GOP nominee has blurted out lately. Remember the plan for free IVF? How about defraying the costs of child-care expenses with imaginary tariff money? What about the proposal to amend the 25th Amendment? Or the avalanche of multitrillion-dollar tax cuts that collapse under minimal scrutiny? At one point in June, he even talked about eliminating the Department of the Interior for reasons that didn’t make any sense, and he apparently forgot about it soon after. I haven’t the foggiest idea what proposal Trump might come up with next, but with 46 days remaining before Election Day, it’s a safe bet the list will be long and nonsensical.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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