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Unknown A
Do you ever feel like everything with the modern Republican Party is a cheap cash grab? Well, here we go again. This time it's US Citizenship for sale for the low, low price, one time only of $5 million. Yes. Donald Trump has announced his gold card plan, which according to him is going to replace the existing EB5 visa program. Let's listen to Trump explain it. Get a load of this.
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Unknown B
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.
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Unknown A
This is not a dream or a nightmare. This is happening.
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Unknown B
Plus it's going to be a route to Citizensh Chip. 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 or anything like this, but it's something that we're going to be putting out over the next. Would you say two weeks? Howard, 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, Hang on a second.
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Unknown D
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, 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.
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Unknown A
It's a green card Gold. By the way, check out the expression on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. S face. As depraved and disoriented as RFK is, I think he realizes this is just disgusting.
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Unknown C
US government 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 A
Let's just cut right to the chase and give it to people who can give us 5 million bucks.
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Unknown C
President United States understands that the right answer is why don't we eliminate the deficit of the United States of America.
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Unknown A
Which you're not going to do with $5 million green cards. I hate to tell you how the gold card.
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Unknown B
The gold card, well, millions. But the gold card will bring in with it people that create jobs, very high level people. I think companies will pay to get people in. For instance, you today graduate from the Wharton School of Finance or Harvard or Stanford or any college. And nobody knows if you can even go to work for a company. So Apple and all these, you know, companies that want to get people to be working for them will be able to buy a card. And for the people that are number one in their class at top schools, you know, I see that as one of the things. But generally speaking, it will be people with money and people that create jobs and perfect, right. They won't have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States, which they're not paying right now. They're not citizens, but they'll have to pay.
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Unknown B
If they create jobs in the United States, they'll pay full taxes like everybody else. So you're getting big taxpayers, big job producers, and will be.
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Unknown A
Of course, no one who can afford this actually needs it able to sell.
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Unknown B
Maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they're pretty good. As an example, a million cards would be worth $5 trillion. Five trillion.
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Unknown C
Wow.
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Unknown B
And if you sell 10 million of.
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Unknown A
The cards, that's which you are not.
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Unknown B
Going to a total of $50 trillion. Well, we have 35 trillion in debt. That'd be nice.
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Unknown A
Now here's the thing. The EB5 visa already allowed wealthy people from other countries to invest in the US in exchange for a green card. Apparently that wasn't grifty enough. And so now the program is really a pay to win system. If you cough up enough cash, you get a direct path to citizenship. This is not about merit. This is not about economic benefit. This is not even the usual Republican talking point about earning your place in America. This is about cutting a check. And Trump, of course, being Trump, is not even pretending otherwise. When he was asked, would Russian oligarchs be eligible for this? He said, I know some nice Russian oligarchs. And it's like, I bet you do, boy.
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Unknown D
Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card?
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Unknown B
Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs. That are very nice people.
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Unknown A
We know it's possible.
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Unknown B
They'Re not quite as wealthy as they used to be. They're not as wealthy as they used to be. I think they could afford. I think they could afford $5 million. No. A lot of people are going to want to be eligible. A lot of people are going to want to be in this country and they'll be able to work and provide jobs and build companies and pay taxes, all of those things. It's an incredible. It's an incredible thing. I mean, this is the group that is the first to hear it. Nobody's heard about it, nobody ever thought about it, but we've been thinking about it very, very strongly over the.
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Unknown C
Yeah.
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Unknown A
So anyway, super strong. It might even come with a Mar A Lago membership. So let's break it down. According to Trump and his Commerce secretary, the old EB5 program had nonsense, make believe and fraud. Now, anytime they mention fraud, it's always like, have you proven that there is fraud? Fraud is a crime. The solution is make the fraud simpler. Instead of pretending the investment needs to create jobs, it's give me 5 million bucks and we'll call it a day, we'll vet you. Give us the 5 million, we call it a day. And it's the perfect encapsulation of Trumpism, which is rules don't matter, ethics don't matter, national security doesn't matter. What matters is who's got the cash. And think about the hypocrisy. Republicans have spent years screaming about illegals and demonizing desperate families trying to come here for a better life. But if you're a billionaire Russian oligarch, no problem.
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Unknown A
Just buy your way in. No waiting, no merit tests, no questions asked. Now, to be fair, selling citizenship is not technically new because the US has the program where you can get residency for investment. Residency and citizenship are two different things. There are other countries where you can buy residency or you can ultimately have a path to citizenship as well. Trump's version is as blatant as it gets. It's not really about investment or job creation. It's just a transaction. You pay Trump's America first shop and boom, you're on the fast track to a passport. And honestly, why stop at citizenship? We will give a Senate seat for 10 billion if someone wants it. Or maybe throw in a presidential pardon as a bonus. Oh, we already do that. Because we know Trump's entire career has been access to cash. How can I access cash? And of course, the real kicker is that Trump is still pretending to be the populist hero who will save and come to the rescue of the forgotten working class.
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Unknown A
And meanwhile, he's out here saying, you want in, just be rich. It's not an immigration policy, it's a clearance sale and the product is the United States of America. One last thought on this. Trump bragged at the beginning of the ridiculous video. These rich people are going to come in and they're going to spend and they're going to buy a bunch of stuff. It's going to cause inflation. If Trump really sold 10 million of these citizenship gold cards, do you what, what do you think the effect on prices will be if you add 10 million wealthy adults to the country, competing for real estate and bidding up prices, competing for vehicles and competing for whatever, that's going to drive prices up. That's, it's a classic way to increase the cost of stuff. It's, it's almost beyond belief, but it's not, it's what Trump is doing.
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Unknown A
We have a tremendous bonus show for you today. We are going to talk about the budget battle and Republicans passing the first, first test for Trump's tax agenda. We will talk about continued chaos at MSNBC as Rachel Maddow staff is going to be laid off and the Texas measles outbreak has surged to 124. This was optional. We have a measles vaccine. It's very good. It works very well. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show get instant access by signing up@join pacman.com Also remember, you can get signed copies of my forthcoming book the Echo Machine exclusively through Brookline booksmith at David pakman.com/booksmith not signed copies, Kindle version, audiobook version read by me, all available everywhere that books are available. Barnes and Noble, Amazon, your local bookstore, etc. I will see you on the bonus show and we'll be back here with a new show tomorrow.
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Unknown D
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Unknown D
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