The Gold Card
35 comments
·September 20, 2025throw0101a
When to elect a 1980s New York real estate developer into high office, don't be surprised when he views the entire world through a transactional lens (generally zero sum).
baybal2
[dead]
VladStanimir
Does not sound that differend from the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Visa the US already has except for the fact that you gift the money to the feds instead of investing it in a company with 10 employees.
gdbsjjdn
EB-5 requires a million dollar investment that creates 10 jobs for 2 years. There's also documentation of the source of the funds.
1 million dollars seems exceptionally cheap for a US resident visa with no strings attached.
In Canada some provinces have a similar process where you can run a business for a year and apply for permanent residency. In my city there were a bunch of weird little, clearly unprofitable franchises - bubble tea was one for a long time - where the owner was basically running it at a loss to buy citizenship.
Turlututu
[dead]
resonious
> My Administration has worked relentlessly to undo the disastrous immigration policies of the prior administration.
Genuinely ignorant here, but historically speaking, is it normal for the president to bad-mouth the previous administration so openly and often? Especially in writing like this.
kjellsbells
No, it's unprecedented. You can generally look at previous versions of the whitehouse website using the national archives, eg this one from the Bush 43 era:
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/orders/
Also unprecedented is the use of Executive Orders to govern, as opposed to legislating through Congress, but that is not an entirely Trumpist thing, as Congress has been (take your pick) failing to govern/applying checks and balances for 20+ years now and across multiple administrations.
Spooky23
[delayed]
terminalshort
Generally, yes. As part of an executive order, no.
gryfft
I really do not believe this was the case before 45. One of the generally-agreed-upon criteria for presidential candidates was that they act "Presidential", which was understood to be a sort of universally unoffensive masculine stereotype? E.g. Before 2016 it would be unthinkable for the President of the United States to openly curse beyond a "TV-PG" way.
As I recall, other Presidents might decry Congress etc. but would almost never out-and-out criticize the direct previous official actions taken by the office of the Presidency.
le-mark
No it really hasn’t been the norm outside the past 10 years or so. Historically the new administration gets a few months, then they own it.
ourmandave
No, it's not normal. But Trump is making it the new normal to say sh*t about anybody not for him.
righthand
No it is not and it is a trend Trump is using to destroy democracy. Typically a Potus whether he won by disagreeing (in reality or fiction) with the previous Potus, the newly elected would just move on and implement their agenda. Trump is doing this so to brand anything he does as a brilliant strategy and solution to whatever the past was.
There is no advantage to doing this unless you are a vindictive, angry, petty PoS.
The important thing to keep in mind is that it is all fiction and it is ONLY Trump saying these things. It is important to let authoritarian ideas die on the vine rather than endlessly debate the strawmen and keep them alive, IMO.
KnuthIsGod
Should be named The Gold Big Beautiful Failed Democracy Card.
On the front a picture of Trump.
On the back pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln weeping in despair at the sight of Neu Amerika.
terminalshort
Did you also say this about the EB-5, or do you just hate it because you hate Trump?
mdorazio
EB-5 is intended to create businesses and jobs in the US as part of the process. This is just straight-up "give us money and we'll give you residency".
On the other hand, it's not out of line with programs in other countries (ex. NZ's golden visa program)
terminalshort
Most of those "investments" for EB-5 visas are really just shares in "businesses" that hold piles of money for the "investors." The payment straight to the treasury is both more honest and more revenue for the government.
Jobs are created by economic demand, which rich people generate a lot of. So we get this either way.
giraffe_lady
Someone whose political instinct is to oppose anything trump does because they hate trump has been much more consistently correct, and a better predictor of the outcomes, than someone who has been trying to analyze each of his actions giving him the benefit of the doubt as a sincere actor each time.
sgerenser
So did someone talk him back from calling it the Trump Card? https://trumpcard.gov/
a_ba
L'État, c'est moi
esarbe
You voted for this.
ChocolateGod
[delayed]
mcherm
No. *I* did not. I (and many others) campaigned vigorously against it.
pixelpoet
Twice; the first time wasn't enough.
null
terminalshort
Sounds good to me, but I think the price should be higher.
petesergeant
Why? Who do you think this will admit that a higher price would exclude, and why’s that a good thing?
terminalshort
$1 million just seems cheap for permanent residence. If there were other requirements like bringing a certain amount of assets into the country with you to generate tax revenue on the income stream then I would also be ok with it.
yazaddaruvala
It’s likely designed to encourage taking out the capital as a loan.
A lot more people around the world can then afford to send their kids or pay off their gold cards across a 10-15 year timeframe.
*Obviously this depends on the income potential that is unlocked by having access to the U.S. workforce.
A_D_E_P_T
Is this a joke? Something like 0.5-1% of households in Europe have >$1M in investable/liquid assets. In the rest of the world, that fraction is much lower. A $1M gift -- that doesn't appear to guarantee results, only an expedited process -- strongly selects for oligarchs and criminals. (e.g. Chinese embezzlers who like the fact that the US won't extradite to China.)
null
“Sec. 2. The Gold Card. (a) The Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, shall establish a “Gold Card” program authorizing an alien who makes an unrestricted gift to the Department of Commerce under 15 U.S.C. 1522 (or for whom a corporation or similar entity makes such a gift) to establish eligibility for an immigrant visa using an expedited process, to the extent consistent with law and public safety and national security concerns. The requisite gift amount shall be $1 million for an individual donating on his or her own behalf and $2 million for a corporation or similar entity donating on behalf of an individual”
Calling it a “gift” somehow manages to add an extra level of ick in my mind.