U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump leave to attend "Les Miserables" opening night at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
President Donald Trump has finally unveiled his controversial "Trump Card" program, a scheme that offers permanent U.S. residency to people who can fork over $5 million.
Applications were invited on a website with mismatched fonts and clunky formatting that asked for few details other than name, email and the country the applicant lives in. The site advertises that it's an "official website of the United States government."
Trump hyped the launch on his Truth Social platform, declaring: "Thousands have been calling and asking how they can sign up to ride a beautiful road in gaining access to the greatest country and market anywhere in the world. It's called THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!"
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick breathlessly promoted the site on X. "The wait is over," he proclaimed.
Despite asking for a cool $5 million, the website provides virtually no details about what buyers are actually purchasing with no terms and conditions.
It accepts applications from eight regions including Europe, Asia, North America, and doesn't exclude any particular countries. When Trump first floated this scheme in February, he refused to rule out Russian oligarchs.
Lutnick has pitched the program as a magic bullet for America's crushing $36 trillion debt. "These are going to be great people who are going to come and bring businesses and opportunity to America, and they're going to pay $5 million," he gushed last month. "If there are 200,000 people who pay, that's a trillion dollars. That pays for everything."
Trump has been teasing this program since February, even going so far as to flash a prototype gold card bearing his own face and signature during an Air Force One photo op in April. The card is designed to replace the existing EB-5 investor visa program, which requires an $800,000 to $1.05 million investment.
"Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card," Trump said.
The launch came as protests continued across the country, fueled by Trump's efforts to deport thousands of immigrants.