Latest news with #TrumpGoldCard
Bloomberg
7 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Bloomberg Wall Street Week: Critical Thinking
This week, how will the United States' involvement in the Iran-Israel war affect markets and hopes for cooperation in the Middle East? And, an interview with the Director of the Congressional Budget Office on the agency's role in predicting the fiscal impact of the "Big Beautiful Bill." Plus, will President Trump's "Gold Card" attract foreign investment to the US? Later, how Zohran Mamdani's success in the New York City mayoral primary election tells the story of the shift within the Democratic party and what it means for business in the city.
Bloomberg
8 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Middle East Tensions, CBO Track Record, US Gold Card, NYC Mayoral Primary
This week, how will the United States' involvement in the Iran-Israel war affect markets and hopes for cooperation in the Middle East? And, an interview with the Director of the Congressional Budget Office on the agency's role in predicting the fiscal impact of the "Big Beautiful Bill." Plus, will President Trump's "Gold Card" attract foreign investment to the US? Later, how Zohran Mamdani's success in the New York City mayoral primary election tells the story of the shift within the Democratic Party and what it means for business in the city. (Source: Bloomberg)
Forbes
12-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Trump Gold Card Website Feels ‘Amateurish,' Not Legitimate, Expert Says
President Trump touted Wednesday that 'the waiting list is now open' for the $5 million Trump Gold Card visa—but immigration investment experts warn the nearly launched website does not look or feel like a legitimate government initiative. A Shanghai-based netizen checks out the website on June 12, 2025. (Photo by Wang Gang) The URL of the Trump Gold Card website— itself a red flag, Nuri Katz, founder of Apex Capital Partners, who has a 34-year career providing investment immigration guidance to ultra-high-net-worth clients, told Forbes, since 'to apply for immigration status, you go through U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services,' and online visa and green card applications are processed through URLs that begin with with ' Another concern: 'Normally, there would be a disclaimer regarding data usage—'we're not going to use your data for this, we're not going to use your data for that,'' says Katz, adding the site feels to him like a 'commercial enterprise.' The Trump Card website displays the presidential seal (which Trump has used to promote his private ventures), flanked by the seals for the Department of Commerce (DOC) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—but a DHS official did not answer Forbes' questions about the agency's involvement in the website, instead directing us to the Department of Commerce email address on At the bottom right corner of the Trump Gold Card website, a link goes to a generic Department of Commerce email address—not DHS or USCIS, as would be expected. On the intake form, the prompt 'I'm interested as…' has a dropdown menu where users can designate themselves as 'an individual' or 'a business'—but 'companies can't apply for a green card,' points out Katz. That the website's intake form asks for the user's region instead of country is 'another red flag, absolutely,' says Katz, as 'it appears they're just trying to gauge interest' and not even take into consideration Trump's newly enacted travel ban for more than a dozen countries. 'I have been confused from the start about how the Gold Card is meant to work and how it fits into our immigration laws, and this is a continuation of strangeness,' Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, told Forbes. No. Trump told followers on Truth Social that the waiting list for the Gold Card was open, but Katz says it could be years before applications are actually being processed—if that happens at all. 'This is an attempt to say 'we promised you a live website and now we have a live website,' but having a website and being able to process applications is potentially years away from each other,' Katz said. Despite the Trump administration talking about the Gold Card visa since February, Congress has not initiated any legislation for changes to immigration and tax law that would be required. 'Maybe President Trump is exploring some executive authorities that he sees as allowing him, or the administration, to create immigration pathways outside of our legal immigration system,' Gelatt said. 'But certainly the executive branch doesn't have the authority to create a new visa without Congress' authority.' Trump's Gold Card visa would replace the EB-5 program, which raised about $4 billion for the U.S. economy last year. 'There is zero indication that the EB-5 program has been touched in any way,' Katz said. The Department of Commerce did not reply to Forbes' questions regarding the creation of the website. 'This is a joke. [The Trump administration] is asking very wealthy individuals to trust a one-page website that feels like it was created in five minutes by a teenager in his bedroom,' Katz said, calling the new website 'lazy' and 'amateurish.' He directed Forbes to compare the lack of information at to the copious information available on the USCIS website about the U.S. government's EB-5 immigration investment program. Although the new website carries the phrase 'an official website of the United States government' twice, 'it doesn't look like it and it doesn't inspire confidence that this is really an official American government website,' Katz said. 'The new website may say 'The Trump Card Is Coming,' but the creation of this website does not at all indicate that the administration is moving forward in a serious way with implementation of the Gold Card,' Gelatt said. 'I suspect that President Trump is very eager to promote this idea, but members of the administration at DHS and at the State Department may be pushing the brakes on how they could implement this. And so the creation of a Department of Commerce website is a way to pretend, basically, to be moving forward towards implementation.' Katz puts it more bluntly: 'The scariest thing is it just seems like an attempt by the government to bamboozle people into registering with this website in order to build up a database of rich people.' Gelatt is inclined to agree, telling Forbes, 'I think if somebody is interested in pursuing a Gold Card, they could just wait and see. There's no reason why they would need to enter their information now. It seems like an unusual information gathering attempt.' Trump has suggested the U.S. could "sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that." He said selling 1 million Gold Cards would raise $5 trillion, while 10 million cards could bring in $50 trillion, an amount that would be enough to eliminate the national debt and then some. In May, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tempered that ambition, floating figures as high as $1 trillion if 200,000 individuals invested. 'In my 34 years of experience, I have rarely seen anybody spend more than 10% of their net worth on an immigration program, and generally it's more like 5%,' Katz told Forbes. 'So you've got to be worth $50 million to $100 million in order to be able to afford this.' Yet there are fewer than 30,000 centimillionaires in the entire world, according to a report from Henley & Partners, and more than one third are American. Even if you expanded the target audience to include non-Americans worth at least $50 million, there are still roughly only 80,000 individuals in the world who qualify. That's 40% of what's needed for Lutnick to achieve his $1 trillion goal—and less than 1% of the 10 million Trump said would generate $50 trillion in revenue. 'The pool of global UHNWIs (ultra-high-net-worth individuals) able—and willing—to contribute USD $5 million outright is relatively small, especially when compared to residence by investment alternatives that are investment-based rather than donation-based,' Henley & Partners told Forbes in an email. Why Trump's Gold Card Visa May Never Happen: 'Math Does Not Add Up,' Expert Says (Forbes)
Time of India
12-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Trump teases 'Gold card' for US residency again as skepticism mounts
TOI correspondent from Washington: MAGA supremo Donald Trump once again teased the imminent arrival of "Trump GoldCard," with his minions claiming millions of foreigners are waiting to fork out $5 million each to buy American residency and a path to citizenship. Almost 15 weeks after he announced the new visa program would be rolled out in two weeks, Trump unveiled a sketchy website that merely said that "The Trump Card is Coming" and asked those interested to "Enter your information below to be notified the moment access opens." There was no date and no details of the program. Patchy details previously announced by the administration said the program, intended to replace the existing EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, is aimed at granting permanent US residency and a "potential path" to citizenship for wealthy foreigners with a "gold car" on payment of $5 million. Unlike the EB-5 program, which requires investments in job-creating businesses, the Gold Card, now dubbed "Trump Card" appears to involve a straightforward $5 million payment without specific job creation requirements Trump and his lackeys have thrown out fantastic numbers, talking up the prospect of attracting more than 1 million foreigners paying $5 million each to generate $5 trillion, a sum that could pay down the country's mounting debt that now stands at $36 trillion. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trading CFD dengan Teknologi dan Kecepatan Lebih Baik IC Markets Mendaftar Undo While MAGA diehards seem resentful of US citizenship sold in such a crass manner to foreigners, others are fantasizing about millions of foreigners paying off the US debt and creating a surplus. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed in March that he had "sold" 1,000 cards (in the yet to be rolled out program), generating $5 billion, and that Elon Musk "is building the software right now" for the application process. But there is widespread skepticism, about both the legitimacy of the programs and the tall numbers, with some experts estimating that only 20,000–30,000 non-American centimillionaires (with a net worth of $100 million and above) globally could afford the $5 million fee, far below the 1 million targeted by Trump. There is a ceiling of 10,000 visas annually for the existing EB-5 program and even that, requiring an investment of only around 1 million, is not filled in some years. Trump has announced that there will be no ceiling on the so-called Gold Card. In further sweeteners to 'wealthy and successful' individuals Trump hopes to attract to the US from across the world, he has said they would not be required to pay taxes on their global income. US lawmakers, including some Republicans, are also in a wait and watch, arguing that creating a new visa category requires congressional legislation, a power reserved for Congress under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The executive branch, they maintain, cannot unilaterally grant permanent residency or alter tax laws for foreigners. MAGA diehards have more fundamental concerns -- about a US overrun by wealthy foreigners replacing poor immigrants.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion: The Fool's Gold in Trump's White House Is Already Looking Tarnished
Donald Trump is back in the White House, and this time around, he's done some major renovations. A home, any decent designer will tell you, should in its aesthetic reflect its inhabitants: Their lifestyles and their values. And Trump has certainly remade the White House in his image. It's tacky, showy, and narcissistic—but luckily his changes don't seem built to last. The Trump White House also appears to have more gold in it than the Federal Reserve. It's as if Liberace joined forces with Scrooge McDuck. Trump has added copious amounts of gold to every conceivable surface: More paintings with thick gold frames, more gold vases and urns and tchotchkes, even gold paint on the crown molding. There's even a gold-framed New York Post cover with Trump's mug shot on it. The golden doorknobs are polished to maximum gleam; when shadow President Elon Musk showed up to his farewell event in the Oval Office (with a black eye), Trump handed him a golden key. He probably wants that back now but still. There are no reports of golden toilets—yet—but virtually no other surface seems untouched. 'A gilded rococo hellscape' is how one photo editor and creative consultant described it in The New York Times. The president who purports to want to make America great again seems to actually want to make the American capitol Versailles. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told The Wall Street Journal that, 'It's the Golden Office for the Golden Age.' Really though, it's more of a gilded office for a new gilded age: A time when the rich swill champagne in their mansions and members-only clubs while the masses suffer through profound political polarization and extreme inequality. Today, the world's uber-wealthy can buy a Trump Gold Card—of course—visa to get into the US; immigrants who aren't flush, on the other hand, see the doors slam shut. Donald Trump has always loved the ostentatious and ornate. His apartments are notoriously gaudy, as are the buildings he slaps his name on (typically in huge gold letters). He first announced his presidential run a decade ago by descending down a golden escalator. But it all seems to quickly lose its sheen. The Trump name is so deeply associated with grift and chintz that many once-affluent buyers have fled his building. When the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino imploded in Atlantic City after years of neglect, crowds gathered to cheer. This is not a man who builds things that last. This is a man who makes things shiny for as long as it takes him to cash his checks. For all his new-money fixation on expensive, shiny things, Trump's economic policies have badly tarnished his presidency. The president has managed to repeatedly roil global markets, earn a downgrade of America's credit, raise consumer prices and make it impossible for businesses to adequately plan for anything; various tariffs have been removed and revised, put back and removed again, threatened and teased and so on. The back-and-forth has been so endless that Wall Streeters have a nickname for it: TACO, or Trump Always Chickens Out. The president seems to now be saying he will negotiate individual trade deals with countries the world over, an endeavor that will at least keep him too busy to hang up any more gold-framed paintings of himself. (He has thusfar been unable to make very few such deals, instead telling Americans they should simply expect to buy fewer toys for their children.) But what else is Trump himself busy with? Cashing in. He's started a small crypto empire, enjoying the spoils of those foolish enough to buy into his schemes, or canny enough to know buying in can get them access. A state-owned Emirati company has invested some $2 billion in one of the Trump family's enterprises. He's accepting a free luxury jet from Qatar. Unlike previous presidents, he has not put his own assets in a blind trust. He has used his position to extract free work from some of the country's top law firms, who he has intimidated out of challenging him or his agenda. As his administration is cutting basic services for Americans, he's trimming the White House with gold, and sitting on a growing pile of it. The question now is what will come first: The flaking of the White House gold leaf, or the falling-apart of Trump's presidency itself.
