Trump Says US Will Sell $5M ‘Gold Cards’ To Foreigners: ‘Green Card Privileges-Plus’

On Tuesday, President Trump unveiled a plan for the US government to begin selling $5 million “gold cards,” which would grant both green-card residency and a potential pathway to American citizenship for foreign nationals. He estimated that around 1 million cards could be sold and suggested the program might help reduce the national debt quickly.

“It’s somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication. It’s a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent,” Trump explained during a session in the Oval Office.

“We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges-plus,” he added, sharing the details of the initiative with a group of reporters.

“They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people,” he continued, highlighting the potential economic benefits.

Trump asserted that the program had received legal approval from his administration’s lawyers and would be rolled out in approximately “two weeks.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was present with Trump, suggested that this new plan could serve as a more effective alternative to the EB-5 visa program, which was established in 1990 to grant green cards to certain investors who met specific conditions.

“Rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we’re going to end the EB-5 program. We’re going to replace it with the Trump Gold Card, which is really a green card,” Lutnick declared.

“They’ll be able to pay $5 million to the US government. They’ll have to go through vetting, of course, to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens,” Lutnick added.

Trump expressed confidence that individuals ranging from Russian oligarchs to Indian tech moguls would be interested in purchasing the cards.

“Apple and all these companies that want to get people to be working for them will be able to buy a card, and for the people that are number one in their class at top schools, I see that as one of the things,” Trump said.

“But generally speaking, it will be people with money and people that create jobs, and they won’t have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States, which they’re not paying right now. They’re not citizens, but they’ll have to pay if they create jobs in the United States, they’ll pay full taxes like everybody else,” he clarified.

Trump forecasted that up to a million cards could be sold, potentially more, and emphasized the financial impact.

“As an example, a million cards would be worth $5 trillion,” Trump said. “And if you sell 10 million of the cards, that’s a total of $50 trillion well, We have $35 trillion in debt. That’d be nice, so we’ll see.”

The president reassured the public that the plan had been thoroughly vetted and was legally sound.

“It’s a path to citizenship, a very strong path to citizenship, but we’re [granting] citizenship for that, I’d have to get Congress,” Trump noted.

When asked whether Russian oligarchs, who often acquired their wealth through controversial means, would be eligible for the program, Trump responded: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”

“It’s possible. They’re not as wealthy as they used to be. I think they can afford $5 million,” Trump added.

{Matzav.com}