Trump yanks Republicans toward economic populism

President Donald Trump and Republicans are trailing in the polls with less than 10 months until the midterm elections. Now Trump is trying out the economic populism of the left.

Last week, Trump called for a 10% one-year cap on credit card interest, announced plans to ban large private equity funds from buying homes and said he would ban defense companies from paying dividends or buying back stock. These moves frustrate many of the policy aspirations of the populist progressive left and borrow from political rivals like former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump, who entered his second term with a commitment to reduce costs, finds himself in the economic quagmire. A new CBS News questionnaire It found that only 39 percent of voters approved of his performance on this issue, while 61 percent disapproved; This is one of his worst polls since recapturing the presidency.

This is a big problem for Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill, who could lose their slim majorities in both the House and Senate in the November elections. Democrats have been attacking the administration with an affordability-focused message throughout the election year, arguing that the president and his allies have failed to lower costs for ordinary Americans. This style of attacking the cost of goods worked for Democrats in the late 2025 gubernatorial races.

Republicans hold a razor-thin majority of 218 to 213 in the House and a razor-thin majority of 53 to 47 in the Senate. A growing number of Republicans in the House of Representatives have decided to retire at the end of this term, and Trump has warned that if Democrats take the House, “they will find a reason to impeach me.”

Trump’s moves appear aimed at assuaging voters’ concerns about affordability — in a Truth Social post in which he announced the credit card rate cap, the president shouted “AFFORDABILITY!” wrote. But not all Republicans on Capitol Hill are convinced that Trump’s populist shift represents a life raft; as Democrats consistently lead in the overall congressional vote. voting.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who will retire at the end of this term, said in an interview with CNBC, “Self-control, clear messages, clear priorities will be useful.” “If you think about it, he’s actually looking more and more like a Democrat.”

“When you talk about limiting businesses that buy homes, limiting the salaries of corporate executives, that sounds more like a message the Democrats are giving me,” Bacon said.

Other Republicans were even more dismissive of the effort.

“The kinds of things we’re talking about right now … are called hiding from your record,” said a longtime House Republican who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss Trump’s proposals candidly. he said.

The Trump administration is defending the president’s populist orientation in the face of complaints from some in the GOP.

“President Trump has been given a powerful mandate by the American people to shatter Washington, D.C.’s obsession with consensus orthodoxy that has frustrated Americans,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said. “The Trump administration is turning the page on Joe Biden’s economic disaster by implementing traditional free market policies that work, like deregulation and tax cuts, while correcting the End of America policies that left Americans behind.”

But even Republicans in the House and Senate have not fully embraced Trump’s recent moves to lower costs for Americans and appear to be coalescing around the message that Trump is an “ideas man.” Trump has thrown numerous policy proposals at the wall to see what will stick in the past, forcing his Republican allies to quickly adjust their priorities.

“The President is a man of ideas, What he is stubbornly determined and focused on doing is the same thing we are, and that is to reduce the cost of living.,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said the following at a press conference on Tuesday when asked about the credit card interest cap proposal.

“I’m not going to get too excited about any out-of-the-box ideas that are being suggested or put forward,” Johnson added.

Republicans have also largely warned against imposing a 10 percent cap on banks’ credit card interest rates, arguing that such a cap could lead to loans being offered to fewer people and reduced spending.

Trump’s credit card rate cap proposal came in a Truth Social post hours after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. he tweeted about this. Sanders, a former 2016 and 2020 presidential candidate, has long pushed a populist economic agenda and in 2019 proposed capping credit card interest rates. He co-sponsored a bill with populist Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley to impose the cap.

“Trump promised to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent and stop Wall Street from getting away with murder,” Sanders wrote. “Instead, it deregulated major banks from charging up to 30 percent interest on credit cards… Unacceptable.”

Trump hours later sent He said on Truth Social that he was “calling for a 10% one-year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates.”

Trump’s housing proposal is also similar to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposal. During her 2024 presidential campaign, Harris asked Congress to pass a bill that would restrict investors from purchasing large numbers of single-family rental homes. Large private equity firms currently own less than five percent of single-family rental homes.

In his speech at Truth Social, Trump said, “I am taking immediate steps to ban large institutional investors from purchasing more single-family homes and will call on Congress to legislate this. People live in homes, not companies.” to mail announces its policy.

It’s unclear whether Trump’s populist comeback will provide any cover for Republicans who plan to sell voters across the country his “One Big Beautiful Bill” legislation that would lower taxes and advance other policy elements Trump wants.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who became a frequent foil to the Trump administration after leading the charge to mandate the release of files on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said it’s unclear whether the ideas will even be popular.

“That’s populist economics,” Massie said in an interview. “It might be popular, so it’s going to have some downsides as well. We’ll see how it plays out and if it can actually pull it off.”

Pollsters say Trump is looking for a “game changer” that will change the way voters think about the economy.

“It needs to convince people that things are going to get better economically in a short period of time, and I think that’s the point of all these moves,” said Spencer Kimball, managing director of Emerson College Polling. “It can get tight, the bottom part can come off, and the other side can run away with it.”

It is not yet known how Trump will achieve this. Most proposals would likely require congressional approval.

To that end, Trump appears to be reaching out to Democrats, including those he has repeatedly slandered.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Trump called her after his speech at the National Press Club on Monday, where he laid out a case for a Democratic victory in 2026 by arguing that “when the choice is between ‘making the rich richer’ and ‘helping everyone else,’ winning elections means ‘electing everyone else.'”

“I told him that if he really fought, Congress could pass legislation to cap credit card interest,” Warren said in a statement after the president’s call. he said. “I also urged him to urge House Republicans to pass the bipartisan Housing Act, which passed the Senate unanimously and would build more housing and lower costs.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who represents Silicon Valley and is one of the oft-discussed potential presidential candidates in 2028, welcomed the president in an interview with CNBC.

“I’m glad Trump is proposing populist policies. I support the idea that we should ban private equity from buying single-family homes; that was my bill,” Khanna said. “If he wants to propose progressive or populist policies that will help Americans, I will vote for them.”

That doesn’t mean all leading Democrats are ready to help Trump lower prices and save the Republicans’ midterms.

“I don’t know why we would take what he says seriously, because it’s his policies that are driving prices up,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said at a news conference this week. “Unless he gives up his policies, these prices will continue to rise.”

There’s a chance, then, that Trump will use a series of economic proposals to distract the news cycle from its weak spots. The president has recently come under intense scrutiny for his use of the military following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, his involvement in the Epstein files, and his aggressive deportation agenda.

“Frankly, he’s the master of distraction. He’ll make a statement in the middle of one thing or then look at something else,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who was Interior Secretary during Trump’s first term.