'This is not good policy': Some GOP senators question advice Trump is receiving

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Roll Call

Posted January 20, 2026 at 5:49pm


North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis is one of a growing number of Republicans who believe that President Donald Trump is getting faulty policy guidance from his White House advisers, potentially jeopardizing his legacy and the GOP’s chances of retaining their majority.

Several in the Senate Republican Conference, including those at the top in leadership and across the party’s political spectrum, have been openly questioning several policy pronouncements coming out of the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, including those that are straining international relations and conservative financial proposals.

Addressing the Senate chamber last week, Tillis said he is going to do “everything I can to point out advice” Trump is being given by people who are not considering the president’s legacy. “They’re not thinking about good policy and from time to time, they are fading far out of the realm of what I consider to be good, conservative, free-market ideology,” he said, pointing specifically to proposals on Greenland and credit card interest as well as the independence of the Federal Reserve.

Similarly, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been questioning Trump’s idea to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, an issue the South Dakota Republican has been vocal about as Trump hits the one-year mark in his second term. Trump “may be getting advice on some of these issues, like, for example, the 10 percent cap on credit,” Thune told reporters last week. “Don’t know where that came from. I don’t know.” The president is facing growing frustration from Senate Republicans for relying mostly on the advice of those at the White House, despite GOP lawmakers’ almost unbreakable loyalty to him up until recently.

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2026/01/20/senate-republicans-question-advice-trump-is-receiving/

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Similarly, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been questioning Trump’s idea to cap credit card interest rates at 10 percent, an issue the South Dakota Republican has been vocal about

That is because -

Fact brief: Is South Dakota one of the friendliest states for credit card companies?

Yes.

South Dakota landed several major credit card companies after 1980 because of the state’s lack of laws restricting interest rates.

In the 1970s, credit card companies were losing money with every swipe because most states had laws that capped interest rates.

The lack of a usury law in South Dakota combined with a Supreme Court ruling that said companies could use the state’s laws where the company was headquartered led to a financial boom. Even if a card was used in another state, South Dakota laws governed interest rates.

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