With much of President Joe Biden student loan program blocked in courtthe new Trump administration could have a significant impact on millions of borrowers.

President-elect Donald Trump has not made specific promises regarding student loans or other forms of college financial aid, but student loan forgiveness is not a policy priority like this. was for Biden.

Republicans have repeatedly challenged Biden’s efforts, and when his sweeping student loan forgiveness program was struck down by the Supreme Court last year, Trump said the proposal “would have been very unfair to the millions and millions of people who paid off their debt through hard work and diligence.”

During his first term, Trump proposed ending a program that provided student loan forgiveness to public sector workers after 10 years, and his administration attempted to limit debt relief for misled borrowers by their universities. Both efforts failed, but the latter left many people waiting for years to find out if their request for debt relief would be granted.

It is possible that the Trump administration will unilaterally make some changes to the federal student loan system through a regulatory process, but other actions – such as abolish the Ministry of Educationas Trump promised – would require Congress to act.

Here’s what student loan borrowers need to know about the issues and what Trump could do:

Biden’s SAVE repayment plan

One of the first questions Trump’s Education Department may need to address is what to do with Biden’s agenda. SAVE (Save on Valuable Education) repayment plan, currently suspended due to litigation.

There are 8 million people enrolled in SAVE, and if the program is struck down by a court, they will have to adopt a different repayment plan.

A lawsuit filed by several Republican-led states argues that the president does not have the authority to implement the plan. A decision from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected soon.

The Trump administration could decide to cancel the reimbursement plan, which was created through a regulatory process. He could also decide to stop defending his project in court.

SAVE, which launched last year, is supposed to offer the most generous terms to low-income borrowers. Under the plan, some enrolled borrowers would see monthly payments as low as 5% of their discretionary income. It also promises to cancel remaining student debt after making as few as 10 years of payments.

Borrowers enrolled in SAVE are currently not required to make payments since the Department of Education has placed them on an interest-free forbearance due to the litigation. The department is expected to reopen two older income-driven repayment plans in December, giving borrowers the opportunity to upgrade to a plan that could be more affordable than the standard 10-year plan.

Income-driven repayment plans calculate a borrower’s monthly payment based on their income and family size, rather than the amount of their debt. In addition to lowering monthly payments, the plans promise to erase remaining student debt after a borrower makes a certain number of payments – usually over 20 or 25 years.

Project 2025, the conservative blueprint released by the Heritage Foundation, calls for creating a new income-based repayment plan and eliminating all others. The policy document also supports eliminating any loan forgiveness provisions in the repayment plan — but that would likely require an act of Congress.

Trump distanced himself from the 900-page manual, but a CNN review found that at least 140 people who worked in the first Trump administration were involved.

Biden grants $175 billion in student loan forgiveness

The Biden administration canceled a record student debt of $175 billion for nearly 5 million people – largely thanks to existing aid programs for public sector workers, borrowers with disabilities, and people misled by their colleges.

Under Biden, the Department of Education temporarily expanded eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, recounted past payments to correct administrative errors, reduced paperwork for borrowers with disabilities, and reduced the he backlog of relief requests left by the previous Trump administration.

Trump has not suggested that clawing back already-granted student loan forgiveness is on his to-do list for his second term. This could be difficult, both politically and logistically.

Efforts to roll back student debt relief are expected to face legal challenges.

“If the new Trump administration attempts to reinstate forgiven loans by reversing legal positions, it will be held accountable and spend much of the next four years in court,” said Aaron Ament, president of the National Student Legal Defense Network, a non-profit organization.

Some borrowers may have been notified by the Department of Education that they received debt relief, but they have not yet seen the change to their account balance. Even so, there is precedent that the pardon would still take effect under a new administration.

“We do not believe this amount can be recovered under the law. We don’t think these amounts should be recovered, of course, but we are prepared to defend these releases,” said Eileen Connor, president and director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, which represents borrowers defrauded by their colleges.

Biden has made other efforts to create new student loan forgiveness programs, but none of them are currently in effect. His flagship student loan forgiveness program, which would have provided up to $20,000 in relief for millions of borrowers, was struck down by the Supreme Court last year.

Since then, its education department has been working to implement more targeted debt relief programs through the regulatory process. But these proposals have not been finalized and the new Trump administration may decide not to move forward with their implementation. One proposal, which would waive interest for some student loan borrowers, is already the subject of a Republican-led lawsuit.

Trump’s Past Actions on Student Loans

During Trump’s first term, he made unsuccessful efforts to make it harder for some people to access student loan forgiveness through two existing programs. His Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, and many other Republicans have opposed some debt relief because it shifts the cost to taxpayers, many of whom did not go to college.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program: PSLF was established during the administration of President George W. Bush in 2007. It cancels remaining student debt after an eligible public employee makes 10 years of payments.

During his first term, Trump called for phasing out PSLF. But since the program was created by Congress, it would have to be disbanded by Congress – and that move has not received support in the past.

Trump’s proposal would have eliminated the program for first-time borrowers.

Borrower’s defense against repayment: The first Trump administration attempted to limit borrower defense to the repayment program, which provides debt relief to people misled by their college.

DeVos attempted to change the rule so that eligible borrowers could benefit from partial reliefinstead of canceling the entire amount of debt. She made it clear that she thought the rule was “bad policy» which put the cost of debt relief on taxpayers without proper safeguards in place and made changes to limit its scope.

The proposal was unsuccessful, but the department stopped processing borrower defense requests while fighting challenges in court. As a result, a backlog of more than 200,000 applications has accumulated. DeVos and the department were later found guilty of contempt of court for continuing to collect on some of these loans while the rule was pending.

The Biden administration has worked to reduce this backlog.

Call to abolish the Ministry of Education

Trump has called for closing the Department of Education, which currently manages the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio.

First, Trump will need Congress to eliminate this department — and it’s unclear whether he will have the support of enough lawmakers to do so. The first Trump administration proposed merging the Education and Labor departments, but the idea went nowhere, even though Republicans controlled both the House and Senate at the time.

It is possible that some programs and funding will be retained and transferred to other agencies, where they were housed before the department was created in 1979.

If this happens, Project 2025 recommends transferring the federal student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department.

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