President Donald Trump's student loan changes, which took effect largely in July, cap federal borrowing for graduate students and parents, eliminate new Grad PLUS loans, and replace several repayment options with two main plans: an income-based Repayment Assistance Plan and a Tiered Standard plan with fixed repayment periods. The changes also end the Biden-era SAVE plan and phase out certain existing repayment programs.
President Trump signed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act into law on July 4, 2025, with most federal student loan changes taking effect July 1, 2026. Some existing repayment plans will be phased out later, with certain changes scheduled for July 1, 2028.
The new borrowing limits generally apply to loans made on or after July 1, 2026, but some students already enrolled in a graduate program who had received a loan for that program before that date qualify for a temporary exception. Undergraduate borrowing limits remain unchanged.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has blasted the policy, claiming it keeps women from going to college.
"What the Trump administration is doing is an attack on women's ability to get an education," she recently claimed. "They don't want women to go to college. They don't want women to become nurses, teachers, social workers. We have to understand what the deal is here."
A panel on the "Fox & Friends" television program pushed back hard, arguing the rules are actually designed to protect students.
"Right now, we live in a country where the way we do borrowing is insane — almost borderline criminal," said former Trump campaign deputy director Caroline Sunshine.
"Look at the way we allow people to borrow money," she continued. "If you're 18 years old, would we give you $200,000 to go buy a car … to start a business … to go buy a home? No, we wouldn't. The only thing we are willing to give an 18-year-old is a $200,000 loan for is college, for a degree that, frankly, diminishes faster than the depreciation of a car."
These changes, Sunshine said, are protective and something the Biden administration and previous Democratic administrations should have done.
"President Trump has done it to protect people from taking on the amount of debt that is keeping them trapped — and actually turning to socialists like AOC," she said.
May Mailman of the Independent Women's Forum thinks the changes could cause colleges to lower tuition.
She pointed out that the previous Grad PLUS program allowed students to borrow as much as it cost to attend any program, which meant colleges could jack up their costs. As a result, since the program started in 2006, the debt burden for all students, including women, "exploded."
Mailman explained that students' debt burden used to be around $20,000, but the program drove that figure up to $60,000.
She predicts colleges will no longer jack up their costs because they want students to be able to afford tuition.
"So, more women are going to be able to afford college and not be burdened by debt, and are going to be able to live their lives — thanks to President Trump's policies," Mailman reasoned.
