Elon Musk, steering the ship at the Department of Government Efficiency Commission, has let slip that there’s a “quiet trial” in the works. The test subject? President Donald Trump’s ambitious $5 million gold visa card program.
“We’re doing a quiet trial to make sure the system works properly. Once it is fully tested, it will be rolled out to the public with an announcement by the President,” Musk shared. His words, echoing in the vast digital hallways of the internet, came in response to a report from Wired.
This plan, initially floated by Trump back in February, is billed as a golden ticket to lure the world’s wealthy to America’s shores.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a strong advocate for this novel visa scheme, doesn’t hide his optimism. According to him, the program has already stirred the interest of a staggering 250,000 applicants, and with 1,000 cards sold in a week, it has raked in a neat $5 billion in a “single day”. But there’s more to this golden ticket than meets the eye. “It’s going to be a route to citizenship,” Trump declared, “and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They will be wealthy, they will be successful, they will be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes.”
The closest cousin to Trump’s gold card visa is the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, birthed by Congress in 1990. This program allows a limited number of foreigners to secure a green card each year by making a sizeable investment in the United States, with the caveat of supporting at least 10 full-time jobs.
This new program is bound to raise eyebrows and questions. Will it share the EB-5’s rigorous scrutiny designed to keep corrupt foreign players from buying their way into our democracy? Trump’s casual response to a query about a Russian oligarch’s eligibility — “yeah, possibly, hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people” — provides little reassurance.
I’ve seen this pattern before. The lure of money can often blind us to the wider implications. As we navigate this crossroads, let’s remember our enduring American values: fairness, opportunity, and the integrity of our democratic processes.
We must stay vigilant in preserving the heart and soul of America.
