Trump Proposes a Gold Card

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Trump proposes a new program that would create not the
Green Card, but the Gold Card, and this gold card
would have Green card privileges plus. In other words, if
a foreign wealthy individual wants to become an American citizen,

(00:22):
they have to put up five million dollars, that's right,
pay five million dollars, which would go straight to the government.
And on top of that, they have to pledge that
they would then create jobs in the United States by
investing in a business or a factory or a startup,
and of course pay taxes. Trump believes that he could

(00:45):
sell at least a million to two million of these
gold cards. You do the math. We are talking about five, eight, nine,
maybe even ten trillion dollars, and all of that would
go down to pay the national debt. Trump believes that
the debt, and on this he's completely right, is a

(01:07):
serious economic challenge. In fact, the threat to the United States,
as Elon said in yesterday's Cabinet meeting, the United States
is going bankrupt. We need not just doge but to
think outside the box. And a gold card is clearly
outside the box. Now. To be fair to President Trump,

(01:29):
because I'm against this proposal, I do think it's creative.
I think it's innovative, and it also really in many
ways modernizes, builds upon, and replaces the current EB five
visa program, which is similar to the Gold Card, except
you need about a million dollars that's what wealthy individuals pay.

(01:52):
You have to invest in more rural or marginalized areas,
and you have to show that you will create at
least ten jobs. If you do that, they do give
you this visa, which gives you the equivalent of a
Green card, permanent residency, and then after five years you
can become an American citizen. The difference is that there

(02:15):
are strict quotas. They only issue about ten thousand a year,
so there is a massive backlog. Plus there is a
lot of fraud in the EB five program. So Trump
is saying, forget the quotas, forget the backlogs, forget all
of the fraud. Let's make it unlimited. Obviously, we're gonna

(02:39):
vet individuals who buy the cards, do a thorough background check,
a criminal check, make sure they're not part of some
organized crime or money laundering or drug cartel or sex
trafficking operation. But if they pass our strict background checks,
we can issue as many these cards as we want,

(03:02):
as long as they're paying five million up front and
the money is non refundable. Now I understand the rationale
for it. We are thirty six thirty seven trillion dollars
in the hole. We need to pay down the debt quickly. Why.
Because the interest on the debt alone is now the

(03:23):
number one budget item. We spend more on the interest
than we do on defense or social security, or healthcare,
or education or any other item in our budget. And
as historian Neil Ferguson has written, in the history of humanity,

(03:44):
every time a country or major power has had to
have that much interest on the debt, which then supersedes
all other spending, that country has gone bankrupt and gone under.
This this is an existential threat. The United States needs
to move quick. That's why Trump is pushing for DOGE,

(04:07):
massive cuts in the bureaucracy and in spending. But is
this the way to do it. I'm all about DOGE,
But is the gold card the way? I don't think so.
And I'll tell you why, my friends. They're selling citizenship
to the highest bidder. They are selling our country, our

(04:29):
birthright and its most valuable, precious commodity. Citizenship. In fact,
it turns citizenship into a commodity. And to me, citizenship,
you can put no price on that. Citizenship is our honor,
is our sacred right as Americans, and our sacred responsibility

(04:53):
as Americans to love this country, to take care of
this country, to cherish this country. When I came to
the United States as an immigrant and became an American citizen,
I didn't come here to use the country to line
my pockets. I didn't come here looking at America as

(05:14):
a corporation or as a business, or as a commodity.
I looked at it from a different point of view.
I didn't come for money. I came for love. I
love America. I love its history, its heritage, its culture,
its Constitution, its Bill of Rights, everything that it stands for.

(05:38):
There are some things in life more important than money.
And I believe if we start flooding this country and
I know they're rich, and I know they're successful, and
I know they'll create a lot of jobs, but people
who are essentially economic mercenaries, who are here because they

(05:58):
paid and bought their way in, we are importing an
entire class of the super rich with no allegiance to
the United States, and that, my friends, is something that
is very dangerous. I believe we're gonna rue the day
we're not looking at the unintended consequences. You want people

(06:21):
who come to this country, who love this country, who
will fight and die for this country, who will contribute
and bleed and give its ultimate loyalty to this country.
You don't put your country up for sale. And what
the Gold Card program looks to me as is one

(06:44):
big giant for sale. Sign well, Jeff Cooner, is not
for sale. And in my America, our citizenship is not
for sale, our birthright is not for sale. America is
not for sale.