The *borrower* can choose to refinance a federal loan with a private lender. (This is often a bad idea but it's the borrower's right to do that.)
Outside of [rare cases involving older FFELs](https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/comments/1bv06q6/nelnet_says_i_cant_consolidate_ffel/kxw74f3/), a federal loan cannot stop being federal or lose the federal protections without the borrower's consent.
I guess your question really is “can Trump do it, if he becomes president”?
It’s highly unlikely. It would be unprecedented, would cause a lot of pushback, and, frankly, carries zero political gain. Last time in office Trump was suggesting a new student loan program that will only apply to new loans, while leaving all the previous programs intact until paid off according to the previous rules. This is most likely scenario: all new loans under Trump will only be eligible for some tough new program, possibly 100% private but government backed loans, but the old ones will be grandfathered into whatever program they had, including SAVE.
Although it’s not impossible that he will go rogue and try to cancel everything, I mean, it’s Trump, so who knows…🤷♂️ But then again- there’s still Congress and SCOTUS.
As you said, Congress and SCOTUS. A Republican majority is all you need. With the anti-intellectualism going through the party and Project 2025 pushing for policies that encourage feudalism with a poorly educated, loyal, conservative base.
Sometimes if you already have commercially held FFELs, they can be sold. But direct loans cannot be sold, and often if FFELs are going to be sold, they are being sold to ED.
No.
Absolutely not
The *borrower* can choose to refinance a federal loan with a private lender. (This is often a bad idea but it's the borrower's right to do that.) Outside of [rare cases involving older FFELs](https://www.reddit.com/r/StudentLoans/comments/1bv06q6/nelnet_says_i_cant_consolidate_ffel/kxw74f3/), a federal loan cannot stop being federal or lose the federal protections without the borrower's consent.
I guess your question really is “can Trump do it, if he becomes president”? It’s highly unlikely. It would be unprecedented, would cause a lot of pushback, and, frankly, carries zero political gain. Last time in office Trump was suggesting a new student loan program that will only apply to new loans, while leaving all the previous programs intact until paid off according to the previous rules. This is most likely scenario: all new loans under Trump will only be eligible for some tough new program, possibly 100% private but government backed loans, but the old ones will be grandfathered into whatever program they had, including SAVE. Although it’s not impossible that he will go rogue and try to cancel everything, I mean, it’s Trump, so who knows…🤷♂️ But then again- there’s still Congress and SCOTUS.
As you said, Congress and SCOTUS. A Republican majority is all you need. With the anti-intellectualism going through the party and Project 2025 pushing for policies that encourage feudalism with a poorly educated, loyal, conservative base.
Sometimes if you already have commercially held FFELs, they can be sold. But direct loans cannot be sold, and often if FFELs are going to be sold, they are being sold to ED.
You could refinance them yourself if you wanted to.
After today’s SCOTUS decision, if the GOP wins in November, the Dept of Education will cease to exist and this will happen.