Trump supporters are about to get a nasty surprise

The Trump administration is preparing to garnish wages and seize tax refunds from millions of federal student loan borrowers in default, but officials are delaying a public announcement until after the midterm elections, according to five sources who spoke to the Washington Sun.

Nearly 10 million borrowers are currently in default on federal student loans.

States with the highest rates of student loan defaults are overwhelmingly Republican-leaning, which means that many affected borrowers probably supported President Donald Trump

The plan under consideration would allow the government to take up to 15 percent of a borrower’s disposable income per paycheck and seize tax refunds, Social Security payments, and child tax credits.

The Treasury Department is also moving to hire private debt collectors as soon as this November, three of the sources said, though those plans are unlikely to be formally announced before Election Day.

Trump administration officials have been delaying the aggressive collection actions until after the midterm elections due to concerns that they will cause political backlash among their voter base.

The administration has been preparing to move forward with aggressive measures to collect on the government’s $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio.

The plan involves using private debt collectors, implementing punitive enforcemen, garnishing wages and seizing federal benefits (such as tax refunds, Social Security payments, and child tax credits) from the nearly 10 million Americans in default.

Some officials are pushing to begin collections by the April 15, 2027, tax filing deadline, while others want a further delay to ensure a new online portal for borrowers can handle an expected surge of calls from people suddenly missing money from their paychecks.

The timing has been a subject of internal concern.

Treasury staff warned last year that the policy would disproportionately hurt low-income workers and many of President Donald Trump’s own supporters, with one source describing the message as: “This is not who you think it is. The demographics are not good for us”.

Another source said it would be “politically insane to do this before the midterms”. An Associated Press analysis in July found that states with the highest student loan default rates were overwhelmingly Republican-leaning.

The White House Office of Management and Budget and the Treasury Department declined to comment, and the Education Department said it does not respond to “fishing expeditions,” according to the Sun. Borrower advocates criticized the timing as political opportunism.

“Restarting debt collection the moment any political accountability has passed just shows how little interest Trump has in helping working families stay afloat,” said Michael Pierce, executive director of Protect Borrowers.

The freeze on student loan payments and interest, initially implemented under Trump’s first term, also changed expectations for millions of borrowers.