Exes make good competition on HGTV's 'The Flip Off' with the El Moussas, Christina Haack

There's conscious uncoupling and then there's conscious collaborating. Exes and TV personalities Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack have reunited for a new reality competition show, “The Flip Off,” on HGTV.

El Moussa and Haack (then known as Christina Hall) were first introduced to viewers in 2013 as married co-stars of the HGTV series “Flip or Flop," which aired for 10 seasons. When their marriage ended in 2017, they continued to film together — with some tension — until the series finale in 2022.

Now, El Moussa has teamed with his new wife, Heather Rae El Moussa, a real estate agent also known for Netflix's “Selling Sunset,” to compete against Haack on “The Flip Off.” Each side scouts a house to buy, redo and sell. One room is tackled at a time and is critiqued by a guest judge. In the end, the winner with the larger flip profit gets a paid vacation and bragging rights.

“There might have been some spying. Like, ‘How is she designing? What is she doing? How much should we spend? Is she really not spending a lot of money?’" says Heather El Moussa.

All three real estate agents are also co-producers on “The Flip Off,” which airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, and “we all knew it was going to be TV gold,” says Haack.

The series has had some drama on screen and off. Haack began filming with her now estranged husband, Josh Hall, as her teammate. The two split shortly thereafter and some of their tension is visible on “The Flip Off.” When Hall exited, Haack was joined by friends she's worked with behind-the-scenes on projects. Her second ex-husband, TV personality Ant Antstead, even makes an appearance.

The El Moussas and Haack spoke with The Associated Press about the show and working together. Answers are edited for clarity and brevity.

HEATHER EL MOUSSA: I came into a lot of chaos when I first met this man because they were filming “Flip or Flop.” One day they like each other, the next day they don’t, so it was a lot for me to take on... But it’s been such a great relationship that we’ve all built, and especially Christina and I throughout this.

HAACK: Tarek and I both have a very quick bounce-back effect. We could be in an argument, but then the cameras would be rolling and we can create a great scene and be over it. I like making good TV. I think it’s fun.

HAACK: The biggest amount of pressure is trying to out-design each other. Normally with a house flip, you’re just designing it for the neighborhood and you know, you can paint or knock down some walls, but like you’re not trying to overdo it. During the process, we got so competitive with each other, we definitely all overspent.

TAREK EL MOUSSA: I’ve learned a lot of lessons through experience. You know, I’ve done about 1,000 deals at this point. And every time you make a mistake, every time you lose a dollar, every time you get burned, it’s a lesson. And you keep stacking those lessons. I am so excited about the future because all those lessons are paying off.

HEATHER EL MOUSSA: He always says to keep the emotion out of it because I think you can get so stuck on when things go wrong with a flip. In the beginning, I would be so mad if one thing went wrong. Tarek's like, “You have to move on. You can’t dwell on the small things. Take emotion out of the flip."

Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for the AP.

Christina Haack poses for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Christina Haack poses for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Heather El Moussa poses for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Heather El Moussa poses for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Tarek El Moussa poses for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Tarek El Moussa poses for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Heather El Moussa, from left, Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack pose for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Heather El Moussa, from left, Tarek El Moussa and Christina Haack pose for a portrait to promote "The Flip Off" on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)