President Donald Trump has suggested that U.S. companies could use his new $5 million “gold card” to hire highly skilled Indian and other foreign professionals graduating from U.S. universities.
The new visa for wealthy foreigners giving them the right to live and work in the U.S. and offering a path to citizenship was introduced not so much because the American immigration system has never been properly monetized, but because “it hasn’t been properly run,” he told reporters Wednesday.
READ: 10,000 Indians to join H-1B renewal in US pilot program (December 21, 2023)
“I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the number one student at a school,” Trump said. “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“And they graduate number one in their class, and they are made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country.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,” the President suggested. “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,” he said. “I mean, they’ll be used by companies. I mean, I could see Apple — I’ve spoken with (CEO) Tim Cook… using it,” he said.
“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, Trump said. “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,” he said.
“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,” Trump said
Asked if those who buy gold cards “have to promise and make commitments to create a certain number of jobs here in the U.S., Trump said, “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 buy five of them, and they’re going to get five people,” he said.
“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 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 — 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,” Trump said. “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 (former President Joe) 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. 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.”
READ: ‘By the time my family gets green cards I will be 96!’ (March 4, 2022)
“Now, just so you understand, if we sell a million — right? — a million, that’s $5 trillion. Five 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,” Trump said.
“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,” he added amid laughter.