Washington (TDI): US President Donald Trump announced plan on Tuesday to sell new “gold card” residency permits for a price of $5 million each and said Russian oligarchs may be eligible.
Trump stated sales of the new visa, a high-price version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the United States’ national deficit.
The president, who has made the deportation of millions of illegal migrants a priority of his second term, said the new card would be a route to highly prized US nationality.
“A lot of people are going to want to be in the US, and they will be able to work and provide jobs and establish companies,” Trump said. “It will be people with money.”
He added that sales of the cards would start in about two weeks.
“We will be able to sell maybe a million of these cards. We have it all worked out from a legal standpoint,” the president said.
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Trump further said that all applicants for the new gold cards would be carefully examined.
But asked if wealthy Russians would also be able to apply, Trump replied it was a possibility.
A number of Russian oligarchs have been affected by Western sanctions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
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Trump has caused shock in European capitals by suddenly opening talks with Russia to end the war, amid fears that he could be willing to sell Ukraine short.
