This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
President Donald Trump's campaign to save America financially goes far beyond his agenda to cut waste, fraud, and abuse from the government books – although that certainly is part of it, with estimates of $60 or $70 billion in bad spending decisions already reversed.
He's also on track to raise money for America. One program involves tariffs he has imposed on shipments into the country, and there's speculation that if applied properly, income could reach into the trillions of dollars and replace the current income tax.
But there's another trillion dollars or so, or possibly much more, that could be coming in through another idea.
CBS explained that it's Trump's idea for a "gold card" 'aimed at rich foreigners who want the right to live in America and are willing to pay for it.
"That term is a play on the green card, more officially known as a permanent residency card, which allows non-citizens to live and work permanently in the U.S. Green cards are most frequently awarded to foreigners who marry U.S. citizens or to those who receive one through their employer, with the latter process taking an average of three years to complete, according to the Cato Institute," the report said.
Trump said his plan is to make available an expensive option for the wealthy literally to purchase that right.
"It's going to be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card, 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," Trump said.
Now Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the income possible for that concept already is at $1.125 trillion.
That would be paid by "deeply vetted" global citizens who would bring "entrepreneurial spirit and capacity," including jobs and businesses, to America. And they would pay American taxes.
He said 250,000 people now are "in line" for that potential program.
Trump has explained that if roughly 8,000 people received gold cards each year, the U.S. would raise about $40 billion annually through the program.
The CBS report said such "investor visas" are common around the world and more than 100 nations offer such programs.
"We have it all worked out from the legal standpoint. It's totally legal to do. It's somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication — it's a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent, where people of wealth pay for those people of talent to get in, meaning companies will pay for people to get in and to have long, long term status in the country," he said.
