Trump-supporting NewsNation star Batya Ungar-Sargon recently admitted on her eponymous show that she “hates” the Trump Gold Card, a U.S. visa that can be bought for $1 million by an individual who must prove his/her ability “to provide a substantial benefit to the United States.”
[Note: To apply for a Trump Gold Card, an applicant must pay a nonrefundable $15,000 processing fee. If the applicant is accepted, a $1 million gift to the U.S. Department of State is required along with potential “small, additional fees” depending on the applicant’s circumstances.]
During an interview with Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, Ungar-Sargon — who has called herself a “MAGA leftist” — said with a smile: “I have to say I hate this, I just feel that American citizenship is the most precious thing on earth and shouldn’t be for sale.”
I hate the Trump Gold Card. I’m sorry—but I just don’t see how something as precious as American citizenship should be for sale to the highest bidder. I had the privilege of asking a member of the President’s cabinet, @SecDuffy, to make sense of it. Here’s his answer: pic.twitter.com/SRCoF20mXS
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) December 15, 2025
Duffy said that the President “wants the world’s best and brightest to come in,” and those who can “invest in the country, create more opportunity, more economic growth, more jobs, better salaries, I think that’s the distinction the President is making.”
Duffy also suggested that the money received from the Gold Card can help reduce the national debt.
[NOTE: Duffy is technically correct that debt reduction requires more money coming into the Treasury than going out, though it’s notable that as of early December 2025, the ballooning U.S. National Debt totaled more than $38 trillion according to the Joint Economic Committee and other sources.]
Another Trump cabinet member, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, has framed the Trump Gold Card as a “much more powerful” version of the green card, which allows immigrants to live and work permanently in the United States.
Speaking this fall, Lutnick claimed the Trump Gold Card initiative combined with the new fee on H-1B visas ($100,000 each) would amount to $100 billion in federal revenue. The claim means that even if the Trump Gold Card revenues were responsible for only half that amount, 50,000 new American citizens will have purchased citizenship using this method.
More than one self-described conservative on X replied to Ungar-Sargon with comments including, “I love trump but yeah not a fan of this.” Another wrote: “I’m with you, and his answer is garbage. Balanced budget? Really? Trump couldn’t care less. Also, he’s admitting the tariffs are for revenue purposes, not to regulate trade. Smh.”
Note: According to the Trump Gold Card government website, the Department of Homeland Security’s “United States Citizenship and Immigration Services facilitates an in-depth background check and process to vet the potential card holder.”
Trump has been highly critical of the vetting process for non-wealthy immigrants, criticism that rose in volume after an Afghanistan refugee allegedly shot two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. in November.
In reaction to that attack, the President announced he would “pause permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.” It is not yet clear whether citizens of those nations are now precluded from applying for a Trump Gold Card due to the pause.