Trump’s 5 Biggest Broken Promises on Affordability
Examining Americans’ Ballooning Debts and Rising Costs Ahead of the State of the Union
The following was also published as a memorandum on protectborrowers.org.
On February 24th, 2026, President Trump is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address. We expect the President to use his speech to gaslight the American people about his Administration’s work, or lack thereof, to address the nation’s ongoing affordability crisis and lower costs. The reality is that Trump’s policies have fanned the flames of the affordability crisis, pushed costs even higher, and driven millions of working families further into the red.
Since Trump took office, American families have been struggling, and more are being pushed into debt just to make ends meet. The following memo sheds light on the broken promises President Trump and his Administration have made to address the affordability crisis and the reality that American families have had to endure over the last year:
BROKEN PROMISE #1: “I WILL BRING THE COST OF EVERYTHING WAY DOWN. I WILL BREAK THE INFLATION NIGHTMARE!!!” Truth Social Post, Aug. 2024.
Despite promising to drastically bring down costs, President Trump has spent his first year in office pushing policies that have made essentials like groceries, utilities, healthcare, and even a college education more expensive. As a result, average prices for everyday goods and services remain stubbornly high.
In response to rising costs and stagnant wages, more American families are now having to resort to high-interest credit cards and other risky products to make ends meet. In the past year, nearly 40% of Americans have had to turn to credit cards to pay the bills and pay for essentials. Half of older Americans are charging purchases like gas, food, healthcare expenses, and even utilities on their credit cards. As health costs continue to rise, millions of U.S. adults use medical credit cards to cover needed care.
BROKEN PROMISE #2: “While working Americans catch up, we’re going to put a temporary cap on credit card interest rates . . . We’re going to cap it at around 10 percent. We can’t let them make 25 percent and 30 percent.” Remarks at New York Campaign Rally, Sept. 2024.
Despite campaign trail promises to lower credit card costs, today, Americans owe an all-time high of $1.23 trillion in credit card debt and are paying banks the most money ever recorded in credit card interest charges and fees. Not only are Americans more in debt, they are also falling behind at record rates. Today, over 12% of credit card debt is 90 days or more past due—a delinquency rate now approaching levels not seen since the aftermath of the Great Recession.
It is no wonder that President Trump renewed his calls to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year. Unfortunately, these promises continue to be nothing more than lip service, especially when you consider the actions the Trump Administration has taken to drastically increase credit card costs.
Over the last year, President Trump has governed as a banker—dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and providing giveaways to Wall Street, like allowing big banks to continue charging Americans huge credit card late fees and overdraft fees. Instead of lowering costs, these Trump Administration efforts to roll back the CFPB cost American families at least $18 billion in 2025 alone.
BROKEN PROMISE #3: “Under my leadership, the United States will commit to the ambitious goal of slashing energy and electricity prices by half, at least.” Remarks at North Carolina Campaign Rally, Aug. 2024.
Despite a pledge to lower energy costs by at least half, rising utility bills are now pushing American families into debt. Utility costs have increased by 35%—nearly three times the rate of overall inflation. Over the first year of the Trump Administration alone, utility bills have jumped 12%. These rising energy costs are driving more households deeper into debt. Since 2022, the average overdue balance on utility bills has jumped 32%. As a result, nearly 1 in 20 households—equivalent to roughly 14 million Americans—are severely behind on their utility debt and risk facing collections. The rate of Americans’ distress is twice as high, nearly 1 in 10 households, in parts of the South and Appalachia.
Across the Atlantic coast and in parts of the Midwest, overdue utility balances total more than $1,500 on average. This is getting worse. In the first six months of President Trump’s second term, the number of households with severely overdue utility debt increased by roughly 117,000 more families—a 3.8% increase.
BROKEN PROMISE #4: “We are committed to ensuring that borrowers are paying back their loans, that they are fully supported in doing so.” Sec. McMahon to the New York Post, Apr. 2025.
As American families have been forced to weather the unprecedented affordability crisis, millions of Americans with student debt have also struggled to stay on track. Since January 2025, a borrower has defaulted on a student loan every nine seconds—a wave of more than 3.6 million new student loan defaults since President Trump returned to office. This crisis is nearly three times worse than prior to the pandemic when 1.22 million borrowers defaulted on a student loan—then equivalent to a new default every 26 seconds.
By the end of 2025, student loan borrowers defaulted on debts totaling more than $92 billion. Today, nearly 9 million people nationwide are in default on a student loan. Nearly two-thirds of the borrowers who defaulted during the first year of the Trump Administration—more than 2.6 million people—live in states that President Trump won in the 2024 election.
Instead of helping to fix the student debt crisis, President Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon worked to block access to affordable repayment options for millions of borrowers and worked to end the SAVE repayment plan—the most affordable repayment option to date—which will result in massively more expensive monthly student loan bills for over 7 million borrowers. Making matters even worse, President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill law will make the process of paying for college and repaying student loans even more expensive and risky.
BROKEN PROMISE #5: “We’re going to win so much you’ll get tired of winning. Every problem can be solved, and every wrong can be rectified.” Remarks at Pennsylvania Campaign Rally, Jul, 2024.
One of the most memorable campaign pledges of President Trump’s during the 2016 election cycle was when he promised Americans so much “winning” that American families would eventually say “We’re winning too much. We can’t stand it, sir.” In 2024, President Trump renewed these promises, this time promising to solve “every problem” and rectify “every wrong.”
Unfortunately, working families can no longer afford to wait for President Trump to deliver on these promises. Recent polling shows that working-class Americans are living in a substantially harsher economy—and are more likely to make difficult tradeoffs such as skipping meals, rationing medication, and delaying medical care. 70% of non-college-educated people also report carrying debt such as student loans, medical debt, personal loans, or credit card balances, compared with 59% of college-educated Americans. Recent reporting shows that working class Americans are now resorting to selling plasma to make ends meet. Americans are right to ask themselves . . . is this what “winning” feels like?
Aissa Canchola Bañez is the Policy Director at Protect Borrowers. Previously, Aissa led outreach and engagement efforts for the Office for Students and Young Consumers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and served in senior policy roles in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.
 |
|