Dem
47
GOP
53
Puffery is one matter. Perjury is a different matter, entirely.
When the Trump administration announced it would sell "gold" visas to wealthy (and presumably white) people who wanted to establish residence in the United States, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was put in charge of the program. We would think that handing out green cards (even if they're golden) would be a DHS thing, or maybe a State thing, but when the primary goal is the filthy lucre, we guess Commerce makes sense, too.
In various public appearances, Lutnick has gushed about how well the program is going. Before it was formally announced, he predicted that it would add $1 trillion to the U.S. treasury. At $1 million/pop, that would require 1,000,000 takers, which is a pretty big number. Once the program was officially open for business, Lutnick declared that it had raised $1.3 billion (1,300 takers) in just a few days.
As it turns out, that was some rather aggressive salesmanship. Or, if you prefer, some rather aggressive lying. Lutnick testified before Congress this week, and was asked to report on exactly how many golden visas have been sold. It turns out, it's a fair bit shy of 1,000,000. In fact, it's a fair bit shy of 1,300. Thus far, the number of people who have paid the $1 million, and received their visa is... one.
There is—and we are obviously happy to hear this—a somewhat substantive vetting process before a person can get one of the golden visas. And the cost of vetting is $15,000, and must be borne by the applicant, regardless of whether they are successful. Lutnick claims that there are "hundreds" of people in the pipeline, but given his obvious propensity for exaggeration, you have to take that with several pounds (or given that all the applicants are foreign, kilograms) of salt. Further, even if it is true, several hundred people are not going to produce billions in revenue, much less $1 trillion.
So, it looks like the Trump gold visas will end up on the same junk heap as Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, and—sooner or later, probably sooner—stock in Trump Media. Oh, well. At very least, we extend our congratulations to the one successful applicant who, as we understand it, is a Mr. Plad Vutin. Welcome aboard, Plad! (Z)