As the U.S. stock market plummeted after Republican President Donald Trump announced his global tariffs, he presented his new "Gold Card" to reporters on Thursday.
At $5 million, the card featuring his face would give wealthy foreigners a path to U.S. residency.
Trump held up the laminated card for reporters aboard Air Force One and swaggered:
"For $5 million, this could be yours. That was the first of the cards. You know what that card is? It’s the Gold Card, the Trump Card, Gold Card."
When a reporter asked, “Who is the first buyer?” Trump replied:
"Me."
When the same reporter asked who the second purchaser could be, Trump answered:
“I don’t know, but I’m the first buyer. It’ll be out in less than two weeks. Pretty exciting, right?
“Anybody want to buy one?" asked the President.
According to Forbes, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced the sale of "1,000 Gold Cards last week, raising $5 billion in a single day."
Trump announced his latest capitalistic venture in February 2025, granting wealthy immigrants permanent U.S. residency.
The Gold Cards would essentially replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program. Established by Congress in 1990, the employment-based, 5th preference visa aimed to stimulate the U.S. economy through foreign investors investing in commercial enterprises that would create at least 10 U.S. jobs.
When fielding questions, Trump was immediately asked about the negative impact his worldwide tariffs would have.
“We’d love to get your reaction, sir, to what’s going on in the financial markets today," asked a reporter, to which Trump claimed:
“Well, I mean, it’s to be expected where this is a patient that was very sick. We really inherited a terrible economy … with a lot of problems, including loss of manufacturing and plants closed up all over the country.”
He continued:
"You know, we’ve lost 90,000 plants since NAFTA, if you think of that. Ninety-thousand. It’s not even believable."
"Had about 6 million jobs. And so it’s a sick, it was a sick patient that went through an operation on Liberation Day. And it’s going to be, it’s gonna be a booming country, a very booming country."
"It’s going to be amazing actually. We see it because we have trillions of dollars committed to come in," Trump added.
U.S. stocks plummeted on Thursday following Trump's Liberation Day announcement, marking the worst day for major U.S. stock indexes since early in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Dow tumbled 4%, at nearly 1,700 points, the S&P 500 dropped 4.8%, almost 1,700 points, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 6% after the announcement that the U.S. is imposing a minimum 10% reciprocal tariff on nearly all countries.
The tariffs, widely condemned by both political parties and trade experts, would include high rates on imports from America's largest trading partners, like the European Union, Japan, and China.
