Thousands crowd Arkansas city for world's shortest St. Patrick's Day parade

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — Cities like New York and Chicago boast some of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades, attracting thousands of revelers and plenty of green beer.

But a city in Arkansas has gained popularity over the years with its parade for an entirely different reason. The city of Hot Springs, a resort town known for its mineral-rich waters, promotes its 98-foot (30-meter) route as the World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Thousands of people lined the streets Monday to watch the parade, which has been one of the city's biggest draws for more than two decades. Over the years, the event has gained the attention of celebrities, and this year, actor Valerie Bertinelli and rap icon Flavor Flav participated.

Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs, said the idea began in 2003 when he and a group of friends were at a downtown restaurant “drinking adult beverages” and the topic of St. Patrick's Day came up.

“We got to talking and said, well, why don't we have a parade?” Arrison said.

The parade began the following year and drew about 1,500 people. More than 30,000 people watch the parade each year, organizers say.

For the world's shortest, the parade packs in a lot. They'll have 40 different floats, and participants included 100 members of a group of Elvis Presley impersonators known as the International Order of the Marching Irish Elvi.

Another float featured the local chapter of the International Society of Helen Ropers, with participants dressed up as the character from the 1970s sitcom, “Three's Company.”

The parade has also featured a celebrity grand marshal and parade starter, and over the years has included familiar faces such as actor Kevin Bacon, “Cheers” star George Wendt and country music star Justin Moore. This year, Bertinelli was the grand marshal and Flav, the official starter.

“We're not doing small stuff here. This is big,” Bertinelli said before the parade.

The parade even created its own green version of the signature clock necklace that Flav, a founding member of Public Enemy, is known for wearing. Flav, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday, danced along the route, enthusiastically greeting parade watchers.

“I can have fun in a five-foot parade. Ninety-eight feet gives me a little bit more time to have more fun,” Flav, said before the parade.

The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, who have participated in the parade for the past several years, sat in the back of cars and threw beads to crowds along the route.

The parade includes other events, including a concert and a “Blarney Stone kissing contest.” Before the parade kicked off there was an official measuring of the route to verify its shortness. A bugler from Oaklawn, a Hot Springs horse track and casino, marked the start.

“I've been to Chicago, I've been to Savannah, Georgia. I like this one better than any of them," said Chuck Last, from Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, who has gone to the past two parades.

Other parades have tried to lay claim to being the shortest in recent years, including two cities in New York that dueled over who had the shortest parade. Another 78-pace parade was planned in Bemidji, Minnesota, on Monday.

The Hot Springs parade's organizers also keep up a feud with another parade in Adamsville, Rhode Island that claims its 89-foot (27-meter) route is the shortest. But Arrison dismisses their claim, noting that city's parade is held on the day before St. Patrick's Day.

Arrison also notes that the Hot Springs event has copyrighted the title “World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade.”

Crowds gather at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Crowds gather at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Volunteers push a broken-down car at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Parade officials measure the route at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders wave to the crowd at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Grand Marshall Valerie Bertinelli, right, greets a woman in the crowd at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Onlookers watch the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Flavor Flav attends the at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Officials discuss the logistics of measuring at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Parade volunteers dressed up as leprechauns toss necklaces at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Todd Colvin, left, and Mike Pendley celebrate at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

Attendees gather at the 22nd Annual World's Shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade on Monday, March 17, 2025, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Katie Adkins)

FILE - Flavor Flav attends Guy Fieri's Flavortown Tailgate on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Valerie Bertinelli arrives at the 51st Daytime Emmy Awards on Friday, June 7, 2024, at the Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

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)