GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — Elgton Jenkins says he doesn’t expect the Green Bay Packers to alter his contract before the season to reflect his position switch while adding that he’s fine with the move from guard to center.
“Right now, it’s just (about) being the best player I can be, being the best teammate,” Jenkins said Monday. “Like I said, man, I know what I’m going to do this season. I’m confident in my ability, very confident in it. So just going out there playing ball, keep doing what I’ve been doing and it’s going to take care of itself.”
Jenkins, a two-time Pro Bowl guard, is moving to center after the Packers signed former San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Aaron Banks to fill his old spot at left guard. Jenkins will take over for Josh Myers, who was Green Bay’s starting center for the past three seasons before signing with the New York Jets in March.
The 29-year-old Jenkins practiced on a limited basis Monday for the first time after dealing with a back issue the first few days of training camp. Jenkins said he had hurt his back while lifting weights earlier in the offseason.
The back issue also had prevented Jenkins from participating in Green Bay’s mandatory minicamp last month, though he was present for it.
Jenkins did skip the Packers’ organized team activities this offseason, but he said Monday that was because of family concerns rather than any issues over changing positions.
“I’m having changes in my family right now, so I wanted to spend more time with them,” Jenkins said. “And it so happened that came up, so it was just, like, it was better for me to spend time with my family this offseason.”
Jenkins said he had expressed a willingness to move when general manager Brian Gutekunst asked him about the possibility of switching positions.
“When he asked me the first time, I was like, ‘Yeah, let me think on it,’ “ Jenkins said. “I thought about it for a little while and he called again and I was like ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ “
Jenkins acknowledged his representatives had spoken with Packers officials about how the position switch could impact his future earnings. Jennings has two years remaining on the four-year, $68 million contract extension he signed in December 2022.
“They had a conversation, and obviously the conversation was going on for a long period of time, but right now where we’re at is focusing on the being the best player I can be,” Jenkins said. “Been playing this game for 20-some years, seven years in the league, I’m very confident in my ability and what I can do. The financial side, I know that’s going to come. Right now, it’s just how can we build chemistry within the O-line to get better and as an offense.”
The Packers and Jenkins have reason to believe he can thrive as a center.
Jenkins was at center for 26 of his 34 career starts during his college career at Mississippi State. While the 2019 second-round pick has primarily played left guard in the NFL, he also has started four games at center, eight at left tackle and six at right tackle.
His most recent start at center came in a 24-14 loss to the Detroit Lions on Nov. 3 of last season when Myers was out with a wrist injury.
“I feel like the sky’s the limit, honestly,” Jenkins said. “I can be an All-Pro, Pro Bowl, same guy — probably even better, honestly. We’re just going to see.”
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FILE - Green Bay Packers guard Elgton Jenkins (74) walks off the field after an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman, 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)
