Trump’s golden ticket

Give me your super rich, your global citizens yearning to be free! The Trump administration has finally unveiled its “Trump Gold Card Scheme,” a new immigration wheeze through which the very well-heeled can buy US citizenship for a million dollars. “Unlock life in America,” declares the homepage, like some portal for a self-help racket, in front of a motivational picture of some rocky mountains. “America’s opportunities accelerated,” it says further down, above an image of the Trump Gold Card, which features the American bald eagle, the 47th President, and his famous signature. “Your opportunity begins here.”

There’s an opportunity cost, of course: $15,000 just to submit the form – and $1 million more if your application is successful. Alternatively, for just $14 million extra, you can opt for the “Platinum Card,” which includes 270 tax-free days in the United States. Family can join, too, so long as you or they are willing to pay the same sum for each member. Easy-peasy.

“They can invest in America,” says Trump. “And we can continue to build the greatest economy on earth.” Win-win. “Our immigration system should put Americans first,” says Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “That’s why the Trump Gold Card is a major win for our country.” If you can make it anywhere, in other words, you can continue to make it here.

There’s nothing new about residency-by-investment schemes, or even citizenship-by-investment schemes. A number of smaller and historically shadier countries sell passports to plutocrats looking for a better tax environment. Until 2022, Britain offered “tier one” visas to anyone willing to cough up £2 million (until 2014, it started at £1 million). But the UK insisted on a five-year wait for millionaires – unless they paid £10 million, in which case the golden visa would arrive after 24 months. (That’s quite funny when you consider that illegal immigrants to the United Kingdom are often speedily given generous government benefits.)

The White House expects its gold-card process will take only “weeks,” though it doesn’t specify how many. It hopes the program will generate billions in revenue. It almost certainly will. But in the UK, the Conservative government ditched the scheme, partly because the British establishment turned against London’s Russian oligarchs following the start of the Ukraine war, and partly because it was obvious that money launderers and suspicious operators were exploiting loopholes to gain residency. According to Spotlight, an anti-corruption group, around half of the 6,312 golden visas issued had been reviewed for “possible national security risks.” The Tory party came under scrutiny, too, for giving top-tier visas to party donors.

The Trump administration will insist that the Department of Homeland Security is well-placed to vet all applications rigorously, and no crooks or national security threats shall pass. But the sheer garishness of the Trump Card system seems almost deliberate: it’s all so hilariously tacky that most of the 99.9 percent of human beings who cannot afford a golden visa will simply laugh or shrug. But public anger may come later. A system so obviously designed to bring in easy and fast money is bound to attract all manner of criminal entrepreneurs as well as legitimately rich operators. And given all the reports and rumors swirling around Washington about flagrant corruption among Trump family associates, the “Gold Card” seems like a generous propaganda gift for Democrats looking ahead to the mid-terms.

This article originally appeared in Freddy Gray’s Americano newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.