He noted that he would have $15 trillion “left over” if he managed to sell 10 million cards, adding: “It may be earmarked for deficit reduction, but it actually could be more money than that.”
Trump encouraged reporters to “remember the words ‘gold card’” last year, and on Thursday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had an update: One person has been approved. “There are hundreds in the queue that they are going through,” Lutnick added to a congressional committee hearing last week.
Despite promising a year ago that gold cards would raise $1 trillion in revenue, Lutnick updated the committee that the “setup” of the scheme has now been completed, and the team “wanted to make sure they did it perfectly.”
While budget hawks will welcome any revenues earmarked for debt reduction, there are some questions over the feasibility of the scheme: More important, how many immigrants are wealthy enough to fork out $5 million per card, or $20 million for a family of four?
Therein lies the problem: Knight Frank’s Wealth Report for 2026, published last week, broke down where the globe’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) live—defined as people with more than $30 million in assets.
While there has been significant growth in countries such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Poland, the UHNW populations of each are still relatively small. For example, the Middle East as a whole is home to just 3% of the UHNW population.
Europe as a whole, already home to pockets of wealth in the likes of London and Paris, is home to 22.7% of the world’s UHNW population. North America, on the other hand, is home to 42.6% of the world’s wealthiest.
The method has proved so effective that economists widely expect future administrations to keep the levies in place—despite their unpopularity with foreign trade allies. But under Trump, how the proceeds will be used remains a question.
