In order to generate revenue, Trump can be called to open his mind. but at the moment, it seems that his earnings are basically negative feedback.

U.S. President Trump signed an executive order called the ¡°Golden Card¡±

Wen

Trump's "TACO deal" (Trump Always Chickens Out) is here again.

On September 19, local time, Trump signed an executive order called the "Golden Card" announcing that individuals can obtain residence in the United States through the "Golden Card" program if they pay $1 million to the Treasury Department or $2 million by corporate sponsorship.

In February this year, when Trump first announced the introduction of the immigration "gold card", the price was still $5 million. Today, the price of "gold card" has dropped to $1 million, and $5 million has become a "platinum card".

On the same day, Trump announced that he would increase the fee of H-1B visa program to $100,000 per year on the grounds that enterprises "abused" the H-1B visa program, causing chaos. Large U.S. companies have issued urgent notices urging employees who hold H-1B visas overseas to return by Sunday noon. But 24 hours later, the White House press secretary said that $100,000 was a "one-time fee" and only applied to "new visa applications".

In order to generate revenue, Trump can be called to open his mind. but at the moment, it seems that his earnings are basically negative feedback.

Trump¡¯s gold card is not legal.

Although legal experts may not be clear about the effectiveness of "Trump Gold Card", according to the website of "Trump Gold Card", "Trump Gold Card" can be roughly divided into three categories.

One is that individuals will pay $15,000 in procedural fees, pay $1 million after the Ministry of Homeland Security audit, and get a U.S. residence permit. U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutnik said the program will issue about $80,000 of gold cards and is currently in the "trial" phase.

The second is the ¡°Trump Payment Card¡±. Individual payments, and payments of $5 million after the Ministry of Homeland Security review, allow you to live in the United States for up to 270 days without taxing non-US income.

The third is the ¡°Trump Enterprise Gold Card¡±. If a company is willing to pay $2 million for its employees, it is guaranteed that an indefinite number of employees will get the right to reside in the United States. This type of gold card can also be transferred from one employee to another, and of course it will be charged with transfer fees and review fees.

The main problem here is that individuals are paying $1 million for the ¡°Golden Trump Card.¡± Lutonick said that the gold card will replace the existing EB-1 and EB-2 (excellent talent and senior degree professionals) visa programs. Lutonick also said that other categories of green card visas are likely to be suspended to promote such gold cards.

This is tantamount to partially abolishing the occupational immigration bill introduced by the U.S. Congress in 1990 and implemented so far. The bill sets five priority categories of occupational immigrants, such as EB-1, which is intended to introduce skilled talents to the United States. But now Trump's presidential executive order is bigger than the bill passed by Congress, which obviously does not conform to the legal procedure norms.

Image from the White House / News Agency

U.S. firms are also in danger.

If the "Trump Gold Card" is aimed at the pockets of the rich all over the world, Trump's purpose of substantially increasing the H-1B visa fee is to force American companies to hire American employees to replace foreign employees who currently occupy jobs in software development, computer science and finance.

The H-1B visa program was also established by the U.S. Congress in 1990 as a legal way for skilled foreigners to temporarily enter the U.S. for work. Currently, the annual quota for H-1B visas is limited to 85,000, but the number of applications is seriously exceeded, so the lottery is to be drawn.

In the past, the H-1B visa fee was paid by the guarantor¡¯s employer. The applicant¡¯s fee for taking part in the lottery was $215 and the fee for submitting the visa application was more than $5,000. If the employer is unwilling to guarantee the employee, the employee can also ask for a lawyer, and of course the fee goes up.

American businesses such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tesla and JPMorgan Chase have been the largest users of H-1B visas. In the past two years, H-1B visa holders have tended to be single-Indians account for about 70%, while the number of H-1B visa applicants in other countries has dropped sharply.

Today, the H-1B visa application fee has suddenly risen to $100,000. Although Indian employees have suffered the hardest impact, it will also become a new risk for large American enterprises. The reason is that Trump's policies can't keep up with reality.

The wave of de-industrialization over the last few decades has left the United States losing a group of skilled workers, and large American companies can only shrink their scale optimization structures if they can not hire foreign employees and serve American employees. These companies mostly support Trump, but now I am afraid to re-evaluate the relationship with the Trump administration.

A financial black hole.

Three "Trump Gold Cards" were launched, and the price of H-1B visa fees increased. According to Trump, "we will get hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue". Not to mention whether Trump's accounts are correct or not, but making money by means of "edge law" actually reflects the black hole of Trump's economics.

The data show that India is the largest beneficiary of H-1B visas, with 71% of visas approved last year.

The main feature of Trump's economics is to cut taxes internally and increase taxes externally. Internally, in order to revive the U.S. manufacturing industry, Trump lowered the federal corporate income tax from 35% to 20%, and at the same time implemented high subsidies for semiconductor companies that set up factories in the United States; Externally, Trump launched a tariff war, and the amount of tariffs collected in the first half of the year reached a record high.

But these moves of the Trump administration can¡¯t cover the US fiscal black hole. Currently, the U.S. government¡¯s debt has reached $36.7 trillion, with only one interest left, and the U.S. federal government spent $1.1 trillion last year, exceeding military spending.

The black hole is too big, forcing the Trump administration to use various means to bonus hunter. However, the cost cannot be estimated. For example, the tariff war is harmful to others and not self-interest, which shows that American soybeans cannot be sold. The "monetization of visas" has changed the United States from focusing on introducing technical talents to focusing on introducing high-net-worth individuals. This is to use the competitiveness of the United States as a bargaining chip.

Per the Trump team thinks that the U.S. is still attractive enough for global talent and wealthy people, so it can be blatant on visa policy, but more and more people don¡¯t think so.

Written by / Xu Liwan (column writer)

Editor/Ma Xiaolong

School of Zhang Yai.