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Unknown A
Let's move on to Donald Trump's suggestion that they up the price for American citizenship because you actually already can buy American citizenship sort of through a process of like you have to like invest like a certain amount of money or in a property or something and then that moves you up in the, in the line. So this is not actually a kind of brand new idea from Trump, but like Trump is likes to do. He's really saying the quiet part out loud and just outlining it and putting a price tag on it completely. So this new Trump idea for gold.
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Unknown B
Cards, we're going to be doing something else. It's going to be very, very good. We're going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card. This is a gold card. We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that's going to give you green card privileges. Plus it's going to be a route to citizenship. And wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this car. 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. Never been done before anything like this. But it's something that we're going to be putting out over the next. Would you say two weeks out. Do you want to say a couple of words about it?
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Unknown C
Sure.
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Unknown B
Wait a minute.
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Unknown C
You have to invest a certain amount.
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Unknown B
Of money in this country in order to qualify for that gold card. Yeah, Exactly.
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Unknown C
So the EB5 program was really, you lend some money, but it was all, it was full of nonsense, make believe and fraud. And it was a way to get a green card that was low priced. So the President said rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB5 program, we're going to end the EB5 program. We're going to replace it with the trump gold card, which is really a green card. Gold. So they'll be able to pay $5 million to the US government. They'll have to go through vetting, of course. We're going to make sure they're wonderful world class global citizens. They can come to America, the President can give them a green card and they can invest in America and we can use that money to reduce our deficit. Why do we give out lotteries of green cards? Why do we give out EB5 for green cards?
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Unknown D
Brian saying that's Howard Lutnick by the way. If you're listening to this and you couldn't see the video. That was the dulcet tones of Howard Lutnick explaining this.
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Unknown A
The former. He was the head of what's the private equity company that was at the Fitzgerald World Trade Center. Yeah, yeah. A very interesting guy himself. And his story of 911 is go find it if you can. Like, he would not be alive today if he hadn't taken his kid to kindergarten that morning.
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Unknown D
He's the Commerce Secretary now.
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Unknown A
Yeah. And he was on his way to work. And I think they lost more than 600 people at Cantor Fitzgerald. So separate from that. So the EB5 program, they're kind of right. That it's rife for abuse. Basically you have to tell the government, you have to convince the government that you're. That the amount of money that you're investing is going to create a certain amount of jobs. And the threshold for it is different. How do you, like, how do you define it? How do you, how do you prove it? How do you actually make sure that somebody's actually doing it or not? Yeah, is. It's all difficult. It's all, you know, subject to different judgment calls. And so Trump's like, look, let's make it simpler. Write a check. $5 million pay to the order of U.S. treasury.
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Unknown D
Yep.
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Unknown A
I guess they'll run a background check on your oligarch status. He said, will they? He said, you know, are you going to let Russian oligarchs in? And he said, hey, some Russian oligarchs are not good people. I've met them. So I guess they'll have the FBI do a little background check maybe or maybe not. I mean, who knows? And then you're in. And if you're like, from the US Perspective, I can see lots of arguments around fairness and on and on, but from a just national kind of interest perspective, this seems like a smart move for the United States.
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Unknown D
Oh yeah. Like this is honestly a way, like more transparent and transactional, like nakedly transactional way to improve an already transactional program.
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Unknown A
And I think you might have a decent number of rich people who would take it up for their kids. Yeah, probably. Like, if you can cut a check for $5 million for no reason to the. To the US then you probably are already a global citizen because you can buy citizenship in like Cyprus or whatever for like, less than that. And that gets you then citizenship in the eu. And you know, if you have citizenship in the eu, you have reciprocal trade, reciprocal travel privileges to the United States. So the only reason you might need this extra gold card would Be. Yeah, for your kids. So you give them a trust fund and you give them than citizenship. That passes down. Because if your parents are an American citizen, I presume now should we make them buy a gold card for every one of their kids and cousins and everything?
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Unknown A
No cousins, definitely, but kids. Do the kids automatically get a gold card out of this?
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Unknown D
That's a great question.
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Unknown A
Actually they weren't born here.
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Unknown D
That's a great question. But this is galaxy brain trumpism, right? This is an idea that is so completely bizarre in Washington because it says we are just going to be transactional instead of we are going to mask our transactional process in the language of neoliberalism. He's like, no, $5 million.
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Unknown A
Now if you want it to be really neoliberal, the way that it should work is that you should be able to sell. We're not going to print citizenships. Can't just create an asset bubble of citizenships. We have a flat number of citizenships out there and if a rich person wants to buy it, they have to buy it from an American citizen bid. So if you want to sell your American citizenship to an oligarch for $5 million, you can do that. I bet you'd have a lot of people be like, now you have to figure out like, okay, now I am a country less citizen of nowhere. So hey Mexico, can I like come down and I have $5 million, but I have nowhere that I can live.
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Unknown D
Just live in international waters and die.
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Unknown A
It'd be funny if you sold your citizenship and then at the ceremony ICE arrests you and puts you in detention.
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Unknown D
Would it be? I mean, yeah, I guess. But that's the thing. Like, so our visa program is obviously, it's very complicated, but there are all different ways that elite companies are already gaming the system and rich people are already gaming the system. So Trump is like, if we're going to do it, just streamline the process and be honest about it and stop allowing these companies to poke different holes based on their privileges and their lobbying, carve outs and all of that. So honestly, if we're going to have this system, whatever, $5 million gold cards might as well.
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Unknown A
But we don't like people that become poor after they're rich. So shouldn't we charge them like a million a year? Keep it going, keep it going. And if you can't pay your million a year, then we're stripping that gold card from you.
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Unknown D
It's more of a subscription than a.
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Unknown A
One time subscription to the gig economy. It's like a country club It's a big upfront fee. But it's not like you pay your upfront fee to the club. I mean, you wouldn't do that for Mar a Lago.
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Unknown C
Interesting.
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Unknown A
And so if it's not good, it's not good enough for Mar a Lago, Don. And it's not good enough for the United States of America. Yes, but see country club membership here, big upfront fee and then, then an annual membership on top of that.
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Unknown D
But see, the problem with that is you get to the renters versus owners dilemma, which is serious. You don't want to have it in the country.
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Unknown A
No, these people are renters. We could, we could. It's safe to be xenophobic now. Trump won vibe shift, Right?
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Unknown D
Well, ideally you want people to invest the long term health of United States.
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Unknown A
Yeah, but that's just went up to two.
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Unknown D
You're doing the wall. The wall just got 10ft higher.
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Unknown A
It's two now.
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Unknown D
Well, we'll see how this goes. This is like one of those Trump ideas that he says and then you don't know if it will actually happen. But now in his second term, everything he says seems to actually be happening. So be on the lookout for the gold card. Maybe he could do it Willy Wonka style.
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Unknown A
I think you would need legislation because EB5 is legislatively constructed.
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Unknown D
Yes, we've said that many times in the last month.
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Unknown A
But do your legislate like this is the thing, like, people are like, oh, stop, stop, stop saying you need Congress to do all this stuff. It's like, guys, you control both houses.
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Unknown D
You have Congress, just do it. They're lazy.
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Unknown A
Just do it.
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Unknown D
Well, some of this is intentionally testing executive power. Like some of this, they actually want it to be. They want to prove that it should be the executive's authority to do X, Y and Z. But some of it, they're not trying to make a point, so they might as well just folded into the reconciliation.
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Unknown A
But the CFPB gutting in the CR.
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Unknown D
Oh, at 100% parliamentarian. Be just fine with that. Hey, if you liked that video, don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe to Breaking Points.
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Unknown A
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