In a press conference, President Trump announced a new path to buy US citizenship, replacing the EB-5 investor visa. The new “Gold Card” would allow foreign citizens to buy US citizenship directly from the government for 5 million dollars. 

The Gold Card is similar to other golden visa programs in other countries like New Zealand, and replaces the previous investor which was capped. The previous also stipulated that candidates have to invest at least 1 million dollars into a US company with at least 10 employees, and was capped annually. This new avenue is not capped, and does not require them to invest in a US company. 

Trump stated he put the new program in place to attract wealthy people to the United States. 

“They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful,” said Trump.

This new program follows the trend of Trump administration politics, appealing to wealthy people to fuel new economic growth. This also follows a similar doctrine to Trump’s inspiration, Ronald Reagan, who believed “trickle-down” economics would encourage economic growth.

The administration has recently made moves more toward a deregulated US market, with lower taxes for the top to encourage them to invest more and grow their companies. Trump applied layoffs to several regulatory agencies, including the EPA, and made it so new regulations would require his office’s approval. The “Gold Card” is only another program to appeal to new investors to a US market, and the administration hopes to encourage them to come to the US and invest, growing our economy in the process.