Trump Gold Immigration Card and DOGE and Inflation

Trump Gold Immigration Card and DOGE and Inflation

About the Trump gold card idea that you unveiled yesterday. I hope you like it. I await more information, but the question is, does this reflect a view on your part that the American immigration system has never been properly monetized as you feel it should be? Well, not so much monetized.

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It hasn’t been properly run.  I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the number one student at a school.  The person comes from India, China, Japan, lots of different places, and they go to Harvard, the Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale, they go to all great schools, and they graduate number one in their class, and they’re made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country.

I want to be able to have that person stay in the country. These companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt.

We’re going to pay down a lot of debt with that.  And I think the gold card is going to be used by, not only for that, I mean, they’ll be used by companies.  I mean, I could see Apple, I’ve spoken with Tim Cook, and by the way, he’s going to make a $500 billion investment in the country only because of the results of the election.

And I think because of tariffs. He’s going to want to be in the country because of tariffs, because if you’re in the country, there is no tariff. If you’re out of the country, you’ve got to pay tariffs.

And that’s going to be a great investment, I think, that he’s making.  I know it’s going to be a great investment, but we have to be able to get people in the country, and we want people that are productive people.  And I will tell you, the people that can pay $5 million, they’re going to create jobs, they’re going to spend a lot of money on jobs, they’re going to have to pay taxes on that, too.

So they’re going to be hiring people, they’re going to be bringing people in and companies in, and I don’t know, maybe it will sell like crazy. I happen to think it’s going to sell like crazy. It’s a bargain.

But we’ll know fairly soon.  I think Howard and Scott, a few of you really are responsible for it, but Howard, if you want to discuss that for a couple of minutes, I think I’d like to have you. I think it’s going to be a very successful program.

This is commerce. So the EB-5 program, which has been around for many years, had investment of $1 million into projects in America.  And those projects were often suspect.

They didn’t really work out.  There wasn’t any oversight of it. And so for $1 million investment, you got a visa, and then you came into the country and ended up with a green card.

So it was poorly overseen, poorly executed. Then you had a border open where millions of people came through.  So the idea is we will have a proper business.

We will modify the EB-5 agreement. Christy and I are working on it together.  For $5 million, they’ll get a license from the Department of Commerce.

Then they’ll make a proper investment on the EB-5.  And we think Scott and I will design the EB-5 investment model because Scott and I are the best people together to do that. So this is joint.

This is exactly the Trump administration.  We all work together.  We work it out to be the best.

And if we sell, just remember, $200,000.  There’s a line for EB-5 of $250,000 right now. $200,000 of these gold green cards is $1 trillion to pay down our debt.

And that’s why the president is doing it, because we are going to balance this budget, and we are going to pay off the debt under President Trump.  We’re going to be doing something else that’s going to be very good.  We’re going to be selling a gold card.

You have a green card.  This is a gold card.  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.

It’s going to be a Route 2 citizenship.  And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. 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.

And we think it’s going to be extremely successful.  It’s never been done before or anything like this, but it’s something that we’re going to be putting out over the next, would you say, two weeks, Howard?  Two weeks.  Do you want to say a couple of words about it? The president said 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 gold, so they’ll be able to pay $5 million to the U.S. government.  They’ll have to go through vetting, of course.  We’re going to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens.

They can come to America.  The president can give them a green card, and they can invest in America, and we can use that money to reduce our deficit.  Why do we give out lotteries of green cards?  Why do we give out EB-5 for green cards?  The president of the United States understands that the right answer is why don’t we eliminate the deficit of the United States of America instead.

Would a Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card?  Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It’s possible.

They’re not quite as wealthy as they used to be.  They’re not as wealthy as they used to be. I think they could afford $5 million.

$5 million.  But they’re all going to be vetted.  Everybody who comes in gets vetted, okay? They get vetted, so you got to, you know.

We’re going to begin in two weeks.  About two weeks.  The sale will start in about two weeks.

We reported, several other outlets have reported, that about 3,500 people are due to be, lose their jobs at the IRS by the end of the week.  If the goal of these spending cuts across the federal government has been to reduce the debt, why impose some of the deepest cuts we’ve seen so far at the agency responsible for raising revenue for the federal government?  I think our objective is to make sure that the employees that we pay are being productive and effective.  And there are many, many, more than 100,000 people working to collect taxes and not all of them are fully occupied.

And the Treasury Secretary is studying the matter and feels like 3,500 is a small number. And probably it can get bigger, especially as we improve the IT at the IRS.  And so I think that it’s absolutely something that is on the table for good reasons.

And the point is that, don’t just talk about the IRS, talk about all of government.  There are so many places, I live in D.C., you maybe live in D.C., where nobody’s going to the buildings.  People aren’t commuting because nobody’s doing their job.

We look back and we see that there are all these people doing two jobs while they’re getting a government payroll on the payroll.  So the point is we’re fixing that. And the IRS is a small part of that picture.

So you’re saying that everybody… So Mr. Hassett, you were speaking about tariff revenue and you also addressed a question about the IRS. President Trump has spoken about replacing income tax with tariff revenue, especially with all this waste, fraud, and abuse that we’re seeing cut.  Is that a possibility? Absolutely.

And in fact, if you think about the China tariff revenue that we’re estimating is coming in from the 10% that we just added, plus the de minimis thing, that it’s between $500 billion and a trillion dollars over 10 years is our estimate.  And that’s something that is outside of the reductions that markets are seeing through the negotiations up on the Hill.  And so we expect that the tariff revenue is actually going to make it much easier for Republicans to pass a bill.

And that was the president’s plan all along.  On these potential checks that you might send out from Doge, is there a concern as you’re thinking through this that they could be inflationary?  Oh, absolutely not.  Because imagine if we don’t spend government money and we give it back to people, then if they spend it all, then you’re even.

But they’re probably going to save a lot of it, in which case you’re reducing inflation.  And also when the government spends a lot, that’s what creates inflation. We learned that from Joe Biden.

And so if we reduce government spending, then that reduces inflation.  And if you give people money, then they’re going to save a bunch of it.  And when they save it, then that also reduces demand and reduces inflation.

Okay, so you’re not worried about it. President Trump is on what we call Trump Warp Speed. We are all honored to be really serving under his leadership and his vision.

Why did they do that? So we’re addressing inflation.  We didn’t have to address it in the first term because it was always in the ones, almost always.  But we’re going to get it back there.

And how are we doing it?  Well, we’re doing it with a plan that President Trump and I and others have talked about in the Oval that involves like every level of fighting inflation. First, the macroeconomic level. We’re cutting spending.

We’re cutting spending in negotiations with people on the Hill.  We’re cutting spending with the advice of our IT consultant, Elon Musk.  And then we’re also looking into supply side things like restoring Trump’s tax cuts.

 

Mr. President.

Q About the — the Trump gold card idea —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

Q — that you unveiled yesterday.

THE PRESIDENT: I hope you liked it. (Laughter. )

Q I await more information. But the question is: Does this reflect a view, on your part, that the American immigration system has never been properly monetized as you feel it should be?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, not so much monetized. It hasn’t been properly run. I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the number one student at a school. A person comes from India, China, Japan, lots of different places, and they go to Harvard, the Wharton School of Finance. They go to Yale. They go to all great schools. And they graduate number one in their class, and they are made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country. I want to be able to have that person stay in the country.

These companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment.

At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt. We’re going to — we’re going to pay down a lot of debt with that.

Q Are they going to have to —

THE PRESIDENT: And I think the gold card is going to be used by — not only for that. I mean, they’ll be used by companies. I mean, I could see Apple — I’ve spoken with Tim Cook — and, by the way, he’s going to make a $500 billion investment in the country only because of the results of the election and, I think, because of tariffs. He’s going to want to be in the country because of tariffs. Because if you’re in the country, there is no tariff. If you’re out of the country, you got to pay tariffs. And that’s going to be a great investment, I think, that he’s making. I know it’s going to be a great investment.

But we have to be able to get people in the country, and we want people that are productive people. And I will tell you, the people that can pay $5 million, they’re going to create jobs. They’re going to spend a lot of money on jobs. They’re going to have to pay taxes on that too. So, they’re going to be hiring people, they’re going to be bringing people in and companies in. And, I don’t know, maybe it will sell like crazy. I happen to think it’s going to sell like crazy. It’s a bargain.

But we’ll —

Q Will they have to commit to a certain number?

THE PRESIDENT: — know fairly soon. I think Howard and — and Scott — a few of you, really, are responsible for it. But, Howard, if you want to discuss that for a couple of minutes, I think I’d like to have you. I think it’s going to be a very successful program.

SECRETARY LUTNICK: Sure.

THE PRESIDENT: This is Commerce.

SECRETARY LUTNICK: So, the EB-5 program, which has been around for many years, had investment of a million dollars into projects in America. And those projects were often suspect, they didn’t really work out, there wasn’t any oversight of it. And so, for a million-dollar investment, you got a visa, and then you came into the country and ended up with a green card.

So, it was poorly overseen, poorly executed. Then you had our border open, where millions of people came through.

So, the idea is we will have a proper business. We will modify the EB-5 agreement. Kristi and I are working on it together. For $5 million, they’ll get a license from the Department of Commerce. Then they’ll make a proper investment on the EB-5, right? And we think Scott and I will design the EB-5 investment model, because Scott and I are the best people together to do that. So, this is joint.

This is exactly the Trump administration. We all work together. We work it out to be the best. And if we sell — just remember — 200,000 — there’s a line for EB-5 of 250,000 right now — 200,000 of these gold green cards is $1 trillion

to pay down our debt, and that’s why the president is doing it, because we are going to balance this budget, and we are going to pay off the debt under President Trump.

Q Mr. —

Q And to qualify, do you have to promise and make commitments to create a certain number of jobs here in the U. S. ?

THE PRESIDENT: No. No. Because not all these people are going to be job builders. They’ll be successful people, or they’ll be people that were hired from colleges, like — sort of like paying an athlete a bonus. I mean, Apple or one of the companies will go out and they’ll spend five mil- — they’ll buy five of them, and they’re going to get five people.

Look, I’ve had the complaint where — I’ve had the complaint from a lot of companies where they go out to hire people, and they can’t hire them b- — out of colleges. And you know what they do? They go back to India, or they go back to the country where they came, and they open up a company, and they become billionaires. They become — and they’re employing thousands and there are a lot of examples.

There are some really big examples where they were forced out of the country. They graduated top in their class at a great school, and they weren’t able to stay. This is all the time you hear it.

And the biggest complaint I get from companies, other than overregulation, which we took care of, but we’re going to have to take care of it here, because a lot of that was put back on by Biden. But the biggest complaint is the fact that they can’t have any longevity with people. This way, they have pretty much unlimited longevity.

Also, with the $5 million, you know, that’s a path to citizenship. So, that’s going to be — it’s sort of a green card-plus, and it’s a path to citizenship. We’re going to call it the gold card. And I think it’s going to be very treasured. I think it’s going to do very well. And we’re going to start selling, hopefully, in about two weeks.

Now, just so you understand, if we sell a million — right? — a million, that’s $5 trillion. Five trillion. Howard was using a different number, but that’s $5 trillion. If we sell 10 million, which is possible — 10 million highly productive people coming in or people that we’re going to make productive — they’ll be young, but they’re talented, like a talented athlete — that’s $50 trillion.

That means our debt is totally paid off, and we have $15 trillion above that. And — now, I don’t know that we’re going to sell that many. Maybe we won’t so many at all. But I think we’re going to sell a lot, because I think there’s — there really is a thirst.

No other country can do this, because people don’t want to go to other countries. They want to come here. Everybody wants to come here, especially since November 5th. (Laughter. )

(Cross-talk. )

SECRETARY LUTNICK: They’ll all be vetted, by the way. All these people will be vetted.

Q How?

SECRETARY LUTNICK: Okay? They’ll be vetted.