Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick responded to coverage of President Donald Trump’s new “gold card” visa proposal, assuring Americans that applicants would be “vetted” and “bring entrepreneurial spirit, capacity and growth to America.”
“We said that from the first minute, go — these are vetted people,” Lutnick said during an exclusive interview Wednesday on “Special Report.”
“These are going to be great global citizens who are going to bring entrepreneurial spirit, capacity and growth to America. If one of them comes in, think of the jobs they’re going to bring with them, the businesses they’re going to bring with them, and they’re going to pay American taxes as well. So this is huge money for America.”
TRUMP’S ‘GOLD CARD’ VISA PLAN A BOON FOR AMERICAN ECONOMY, EXPERT SAYS: ‘MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL’
President Trump suggested the introduction of a “gold card” visa on Tuesday afternoon — a potential opportunity for foreign investors to buy their way to American citizenship.
The United States currently offers a similar opportunity through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which was established in 1990 and is administered by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
According to USCIS’s website, the visa is open to investors who “make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States” and “plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.”
Trump’s recent suggestion would replace the EB-5 program, and instead, he plans to propose a “gold card” visa to the tune of $5 million.
“We are going to be selling a gold card,” Trump explained to reporters. “We are going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million.”
Lutnick shed light on how Trump’s latest pitch came to be, telling Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier “the president had conversations over the weekend with his friend John Paulson, who came up and said, ‘Hey, why aren’t we doing better with that?'”
“He called me. We talked about it, and I did work over the weekend, and on a Monday, and on Tuesday at a press conference, the president comes out and gives the path.”
The head of commerce shared that there are roughly 250,000 individuals in line for the “gold card” visa, and priced at $5 million a piece, the current list would come to $1.25 trillion for the United States.
“Imagine if we sell a million of them. That’s $5 trillion, and that pays off our debt, drives down interest rates and makes America amazing,” Lutnick said.
More information about the “gold card” is expected to come in the next few weeks.
Lutnick shared additional insider perspective on the Trump economic agenda during his exclusive sit-down on “Special Report.”
FOX Business’ Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
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