Lutnick Says Nearly 70,000 Have Signed Up For $5 Million ‘Trump Card’ Investor Visa

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

Nearly 70,000 people have signed up for the “Trump Card,” a proposed U.S. visa program that would offer legal residency to foreign nationals willing to pay a $5 million fee to the United States, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Lutnick, who’s spearheading the initiative, told the Financial Times on June 17 that 68,703 individuals—and counting—had joined the waiting list via a website launched just a week ago. The Trump Card, which he said “will be made of gold,” prominently features President Donald Trump’s image and the $5 million figure.

The initiative is being pitched as a dual-purpose policy: a strategy to attract high-net-worth business leaders who would live in the United States, create jobs, and pay taxes, and a revenue-generating tool to help reduce the nation’s nearly $37 trillion debt.

“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,” Trump said in February when he first announced the plan.

Lutnick has suggested that the Trump Card could eventually replace the existing EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which allows foreigners to apply for a green card by investing at least $1.05 million—or $800,000 in designated high-unemployment or rural areas—and creating at least 10 full-time U.S. jobs.

Aaron Grau, executive director of Invest in the USA (IIUSA), a trade association representing EB-5 stakeholders, described EB-5 as a “proven model” for how targeted immigration policies can strengthen the U.S. economy.

“IIUSA applauds President Trump’s continued focus on investment-based immigration, which has a long record of success,” Grau said in a statement following the launch of the TrumpCard.gov website. “For over 35 years, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program has delivered billions in foreign direct investment and created millions of American jobs—all at no cost to taxpayers.”

From 2016 to 2019 alone, the EB-5 program generated $184 billion in economic activity and supported 7 million U.S. jobs, according to an IIUSA-commissioned impact study. That same study reported $14.5 billion in combined federal, state, and local tax revenue and found that the average wage of EB-5-supported jobs—$74,000—was 48 percent higher than the national private sector average.

“We appreciate the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Lutnick on this important issue and look forward to continued engagement with the Trump Administration and Congress to enhance the Gold Card’s effectiveness and value to the U.S. economy,” Grau said, referring to the Trump Card.

Lutnick has been critical of the EB-5 program, describing it as “full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud.”

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about whether the Trump Card can be implemented without congressional approval. Unlike the EB-5 program, which was created by Congress and is featured in the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Trump Card program has not gone through the legislative process.

George Fishman, a senior legal fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, warned in an April blog post that the program may not withstand legal scrutiny.

“Given the Constitution’s grant of all legislative power to Congress, Congress’s plenary power over immigration, and Congress’s very probable supremacy over the Executive Branch in terms of deciding the immigration law of the U.S., it seems unlikely that the gold card program, unless duly enacted into law, would survive Supreme Court scrutiny,” Fishman wrote.

The tax implications of the Trump Card also remain unclear. Trump has made conflicting statements—initially suggesting cardholders would be exempt from U.S. taxes on foreign income, then later implying they would be taxed like other U.S. residents.