'What!?' MSNBC host baffled by Trump's 'magic math' scheme to raise trillions of dollars

MSNBC host Ali Vitali was at a loss for words very early Thursday morning after watching a clip of Donald Trump pitch selling citizenship visas for millions, claiming he could raise trillions of dollars to the point where the U.S. government would be sitting on excess money.

That led the host of MSNBC's "Way Too Early" to issue a puzzled, "What!?"

In a televised Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the president riffed on his proposal, and claimed he could sell millions of the high-priced $5 million "gold cards," adding they will "sell like crazy."

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'

Trump suggested that the new revenue generated from his proposal could be used to pay off the country’s debt and asserted "If we sell a million, that’s $5 trillion dollars,” before continuing, "If we sell 10 million, which is possible, 10 million highly productive people coming in or people that we're going to make productive. They'll be young, but they're talented, like a talented athlete. That's $50 trillion. That means our debt is totally paid off, and we have $15 trillion above that."

He then added the caveat, "Now I don't know that we're going to sell that many, maybe we won't sell many at all, but I think we're going to sell a lot."

Following showing the clip, Vitali asked for help from guest Margaret Talev, Director of the Syracuse University Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship, for help understanding what Trump wants to do.

'What!? I mean, is this real? Can they do it? What would it look like? Just because you say it in a Cabinet meeting doesn't make it a thing," she prompted her guest.

"The president certainly knows how to make a splash," the amused Talev replied. "I think we've seen some dynamic branding over the last few weeks and this is another example of that."

"I would take anything that he says seriously as a starting point at this point, because it's either going to make a flurry of activity where something else happens or it's going to happen so either way, something's going to happen," she added. "But I think part of what you're hearing here is sort of magical math."

"We're entering an era –– an era where there could soon be another shutdown, that he wants to do a renewal of his tax cuts that could cost about the same magic amount that he just did the math on right there," she elaborated. "So I think it's pretty highly unlikely that a gold card will pay for the tax cut plan."

You can watch below or at the link here.

- YouTubeyoutu.be