NO TAKERS

Trump’s Tacky Gold Card Scheme Totally Flops

The government admitted in court that hardly anyone has signed up for the Trump visa.

Wealthy foreigners don’t seem too eager to shell out the dough for President Donald Trump’s visa “Gold Card.”

Just 338 people have submitted requests for a Trump Gold Card, and only 165 people have paid the $15,000 visa processing fee, the Department of Homeland Security revealed in a court filing last week.

opinion

AMERICAN SCHEME

This Is the Cynical Truth About Trump and Citizenship

Michael Daly

It’s far below what the Trump administration had suggested.

Last year, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asserted that the federal government would make more than $100 billion in revenue from issuing 80,000 Gold Cards.

And in March, Lutnick claimed on the All-In Podcast that the administration had already handed out 1,000 Trump Gold Cards for $5 million each before the program had even launched.

The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.

The Trump administration, as it simultaneously executes its mass deportation agenda, has framed the Gold Cards as a kind of new investment that would attract overseas millionaires and billionaires while raising revenue for the country.

The administration has also tried to sell to wealthy foreigners on being approved for the visa quickly, with its website saying visa seekers would be approved in “record time” and in “a matter of weeks.”

But in the same court filing where DHS revealed shockingly low application numbers, the agency also admitted that Gold Card visa seekers are not given special treatment to get approved quicker than applicants of other visas.

“Gold Card applicants will not necessarily have their petitions adjudicated faster than any non-Gold-Card applicant,” DHS said in the filing.

The Gold Card has also been plagued by delays and questions surrounding its legality. The program is currently facing a lawsuit from the Affirmative Litigation Democracy Defenders Fund, and questions on the program’s legality is part of the reason why wealthy foreigners are staying away from it, CNBC reported.

It appears just one public figure has implied that they have received a Gold Card, but even that appeared to be a fluke.

Rapper Nicki Minaj, who made a public pivot to MAGA earlier this year, made a series of posts online in which she implied that she had received a Trump Gold Card.

But a White House official later revealed to The New York Times that the card was just a memento and not a visa document, and Minaj, a Trinidad and Tobago native, has been a permanent legal resident of the U.S. for two decades.

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Annabella RosciglioneReporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.