In his second term in office, US President Donald Trump brought many new plans to fruition. Clearly, in the four years between the end of his first term and the start of his second, Trump formulated numerous action plans he would like to see implemented alongside now-regular corroborators such as Vice President JD Vance and noted billionaire Elon Musk.
As a result, Trump’s second term has been pedal to the metal from the start. Though he’s only been in office for a month and a half, he and his team have made thousands of policy changes and continue to announce new plans on a near-daily basis.
What Is a Gold Card?
One of the latest and most noteworthy of these new plans concerns three of Trump’s favorite subjects: immigrants, billionaires, and making money for himself. President Trump has announced a plan to sell $5 million “gold card” visas, which Trump has named as such to contrast them from traditional green cards. These new gold cards would offer permanent residency and work authorization in the US and are being used to incentivize American citizenship for the ultra-wealthy.
“The Forbes report said that many people will be coming into our country by buying this card,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful.”
Trump has claimed the plan is a way to reduce the federal deficit. “We’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good. As an example, a million cards would be worth $5 trillion dollars,” the American president said.
Do Billionaires Want the Gold Card?
However, the question remains: Why would the world’s wealthiest people buy into Trump’s latest scheme? To assuage these looming concerns, Forbes interviewed eighteen billionaires from across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa to assess their level of interest.
Thirteen billionaires said they would not be interested in purchasing a gold card visa. Three claimed that they were on the fence, uncertain of how to take the offer in the first place. This left two of the thirteen polled billionaires to say that they’d seriously consider buying a gold card from Trump.
Trump is a businessman, so he must realize that two out of thirteen is not exactly the positive reception one hopes for.
Who Is This for?
The Forbes report said that many of the ultra-rich don’t think they need American citizenship and don’t want it. Some aren’t interested in moving from the countries where they built their businesses and raised their families.
“If you’re a billionaire, you don’t need it,” one Canadian billionaire told Forbes.
“In my opinion, there is no reason for rich people to go to this program,” added a European billionaire.
“Whoever has a business idea can do it now for very cheap, so why spend $5 million?” said one Russian billionaire. “I do not understand who will pay $5 million.”
“I wouldn’t want to be a citizen of any country other than India anytime—particularly in this century,” Abhay Soi, who chairs India’s second-largest listed hospital chain by revenue, told Forbes.
He is one of seven Indian billionaires polled by Forbes, all of whom said they’re not interested in a gold card.
Taxes
Of course, one of the most scrutinized aspects of Trump’s new proposition is its tax implications. The US is one the few nations that taxes its citizens on their income worldwide, regardless of where they reside. To this end, anyone with a gold card will obtain citizenship and be taxed.
It remains to be seen if the gold card plan will actually move forward with any momentum or if, like countless other proposed plans from Trump, it will simply drift out of sight and out of mind for the president and the country in a few weeks.
