As the animation loops it uses the same set of images over again. But as they all have a Cache-Control header with a value of "public, max-age=0, must-revalidate" the browser makes another request for every one of the images, every loop of the animation. It results in transfer of something of the order of 0.6MB/sec, with no end.
You can buy Austrian citizenship for ~5M EUR. Cyprus and Malta offered similar schemes at much lower prices until recently. Italy incentivizes people to move their tax residence there by letting them pay a 200k EUR lump sum tax annually instead of the standard progressive rate. I don't really see why we shouldn't have programs like this if there is vetting, but I'm also curious under which US laws this can be justified. Who would have standing to contest this even if it wasn't legal?
PS:
Under 50 USC §3508, the CIA director or the Attorney General can bring in up to 100 aliens and their family per year for permanent residence without regard to any admissibility requirements. Perhaps to maximize revenue these spots can be auctioned off at a premium.
There already was such a system with more concrete requirements. It is called the EB5 visa and has a path to green card. What does this new method bring to the table?
The payments are not going to Trump, personally. They're probably not going to the government, either; I bet this becomes like the EB-5 investor visa, where you make certain kinds of investments within the US. I admit that the text on the website doesn't make this clear, though.
Yeah, if you peel off Trump's name, the insane branding, and the fact that this seems to have been implemented completely extra-legally, I don't hate it.
The "extra-legally" part is not at all clear. When this goes to court (and I'm sure it will), the administration's argument will probably go something like this: Congress has authorized the administration to issue visas to people of "exceptional ability in business" -- see 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2), for example. However, Congress did not specify how, exactly, the executive will ascertain that ability. The Trump administration believes that making a one million dollar investment in the U.S. demonstrates evidence of business ability, and is using this as a factor for issuing and prioritizing visas.
The $5 million option gives you privileges even better than a US citizen since you do not pay taxes on foreign income while being a US resident. They should make it an annual fee.
"If approved, an individual must make a gift of $1 million, which has been determined to provide sufficient evidence that the individual will substantially benefit the United States."
This kind of thing is not new in the US. Check out the EB-5 investor visa[1], which has been around for decades and offers a similar investment-for-visa arrangement.
It sounds like the objection you're making is to the website and not the program. Do you think it's always inappropriate for executive branch websites to reflect the style of the person in office? I can understand the push for a more neutral style, but the level of shock-and-horror for something the next administration could easily redesign seems.. excessive?
When this goes to court (and I'm sure it will), the administration's argument will probably go something like this: Congress has authorized the administration to issue visas to people of "exceptional ability in business" -- see 8 U.S.C. § 1153(b)(2), for example. However, Congress did not specify how, exactly, the executive will ascertain that ability. The Trump administration believes that making a one million dollar investment in the U.S. demonstrates evidence of business ability, and is using this as a factor for issuing and prioritizing visas.
Come, come, my good sir! We all know that none of this matters at all, because if appealed up to the Supreme Court, they always rule in favor of President Trump. With all due respect, that's what matters in the case of President Trump, the Supreme Court will let him do anything. It doesn't matter what thin veneer of law is applied.
I remember watching the movie Idiocracy and laughing, thinking something like that could never happen to us. I can’t watch it anymore because it’s too close to reality
The Burrito Supreme Court said that they and no other are the sole arbiter of what constitutes an "official act" by The President. And, that he is immune from prosecution for "official acts". Congress has simultaneously abdicated lawmaking and has decided to let the president make policy via executive orders. I think most people have forgotten E.O.s are merely directives to the executive branch departments about how to implement the laws congress passes. Or, at least they were. Now apparently they're royal decrees.
It’s certainly illegal. I believe the law allows administrative fees, etc to cover costs. It doesn’t authorize fees as a source of income.
But who would have standing to challenge someone else’s visa in court? Maybe existing people trying to get a green card? Or other immigration rights activists?
> Regardless of what side you are on, this country is bigger than one man.
Not anymore. It is now precisely the size, shape and texture of one man's ego.
> This branding seems flippant and unserious.
A groyper script kiddie named "Big Balls" had root access to the government's entire data infrastructure and just deleted shit at will, Trump's tariff policies were written by Grok using imaginary math, the head of the CDC doesn't think germs are real, the DOJ says Epstein never had a client list and Trump is definitely not a pedophile, the head of American intelligence is a Putin apologist, the Secretary of Defense is a lunatic podcaster trying to purge the military of "woke" and Trump is so much more rotten cabbage than man that he has to appear on tv by GenAI just so people still think he's a functioning human being. And he's definitely a pedophile.
We passed "flippant and unserious" miles and miles back. Can't even see it in the rear view mirror anymore.
Kind of incredible how fragile the scaffolding of American ideals was, in retrospect.
The last eight months represent an unabated march to the most idiotic satirical version imaginable. No guardrails provided even the slightest of sanity or introspection, much less resistance.
This has been going on for 10 years. I'm actually surprised it has withstood as much as it did. As they say, these things tend to move slowly, and then all at once.
The main problems seems to be that in order to stop these things, you have to recognize them well ahead of when the metastasize (what's happening now). We had several obvious opportunities where the call was easy, and we couldn't make the right call every time.
The first was in 2016 when Trump revealed his abject racism and sexism, two qualities that are necessarily required for a fascist movement. If we had rejected him on the basis that he sexually assaulted women, which we knew in 2016 before the first election, we could have averted this whole disaster.
Then we had another opportunity in 2020, when he had organized an insurrection against his own government to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. At that time, we could have arrested him, convicted him, and also impeached him, barring him from office forever. If we had done that, we could again have averted this whole disaster.
Then we had a THIRD opportunity in 2024. I don't need to go over that recent history, but it suffices to say at that time we knew he was a racist, sexist, insurrectionist and we STILL voted him into power.
So I don't think the system was all that fragile. It's just, it can't bear the load of so much stupidity and self sabotage. No matter how robust the system it can't survive if you just invite the vampires in the front door!
Don't fret too much. This has been in the making since at least [1933](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot). Nixon moved it forward, but found enough conscience or fear to give in. Ford's pardon and the DoJ's failure to prosecute rounding out the idea of not actually holding our leaders materially accountable. Then Reagan comes in and torches the economic basis of the federal government, gutting its ability to audit the wealthy or effectively regulate white collar crime. He also quietly deregulates broadcast media leading to a massive consolidation throughout the 90's and oughts. Clinton, the centrist he was, let critical economic safeguards lapse. The gaslighting begins in earnest with Newt Gingrich leading. Then the world changed and a document written at least as far back as the 80s but never successfully adopted was renamed "The Patriot Act" and rammed through on an "emergency" basis and which laid the groundwork for the erosion of civil rights. "Free speech zones" enters the American lexicon, anywhere within 100 miles of the US international border is now subject to searches without a warrant. All the while media consolidation makes it possible for organization to push a fantastical right-wing agenda. The Overton window slides to the right. "Terrorism" becomes not just household but daily word. People became comfortable with the military, they were everywhere and in everything. And then the internet exploded in popularity and network connections and the meme wars began.
The battle was lost because only one group understood the battle was occurring.
Also, what dumbass is gonna drop a million on this?
Literally the CIO of a $20b/year ARR company said to me: “I was gonna send my kids to school in the US. Now? Never in a million years. Even I won’t set foot there.“
You can’t win in the global economy AND nativist white supremacist politics at the same time.
Citizenship by investment revenue was 20% of St Kitts’ GDP in 2023. Look at the Henley & Partners website - pretty much every developed country (much of EU, Singapore, Switzerland, many Asian countries) offer at least offer residency by investment. And they still offer it despite pressure from the EU to shut these programs down, so there must be some benefit to it.
These are usually designed for wealthy people. The benefits might only accrue to the wealthy in the target country. For example my government in New Zealand keeps talking about being able to sell land to foreigners if it's more than 2 million. That benefits people that own land worth 2 million. The theory is that it trickles down to benefit the majority, but I wouldn't bet that actually occurred.
The bar should not be investment, instead it should be how much is spent. That could also cover nomadic workers. So long as their expenses are bringing overseas income then everybody in the target country is likely to be advantaged.
Investment can benefit both parties (it doesn't have to be zero sum) but savvy investors don't give a shit whether there is any benefit to the country. Applicants naturally don't like to spend money without gain, yet the purpose of the golden visas should be to encourage applicants to spend money!!!
Or investors often just invest in static assets that just hold their wealth. That doesn't help the target country.
Just my opinion from looking at the schemes and wondering how I would get around the rules so that I had no dead weight expenses.
Another argument for why it's good: if you're rich, you can either pay lots of money to an immigration lawyer to make sure your visa gets approved, or you could cut out the middleman and pay the government directly. Why wouldn't they just cut out the middleman?
Since congress didn't authorize this how is it legal? If it's not authorized by congress and there's no rules about where the money goes, where does it go? How is it being tracked and where will the details be published? These are the questions answered by legislation. Here, it's a black hole into a pocket with no oversight.
I don't need to. Just look at your immediate surroundings and ask yourself "who are the millionaires responsible for these products I enjoy?". Every component in your phone, computer, the chair in which you sit, the building you are in, the clothes you wear, and the car you drive. As a rule, people get rich because they create things, not because they exploit others. That's how capitalism works and it does work
Why would getting a lot of millionaires to your country be better than getting a lot of hard working but poor people? Wouldn't it matter mostly how they got their money?
Because I am willing to bet that Donald Trump will be able to attract mostly crooked people who know how to game the system, not people who have amassed their fortunes by hard work.
Sorry, no. Malta and Portugal had similar programs. The people who came were rent seekers an oligarchs in their own countries. Portugal had a massive amount of Chinese, and not the kind who build an electric vehicle factory.
Trump of course is familiar with these circles, so it is no problem for him.
This isn't investment based citizenship (which yes, has loopholes because you can funnel the profits out of the country). You pay the government directly
Me too. Reminds me of the Apple Garamond family Apple used to use in the 90s, though I'm too sleepy by now to check if they're the same. No idea why they stopped using it, it's beautiful.
Idiocracy was the good timeline. Where are you President Comancho? He at least knew when to let the smartest person in the room talk and had the best interest of his country at heart.
The use of ´gift’ is extremely weird. I wanted to check what that was about, but there is no link to anything describing this in legalese.
The website is exactly like a startup landing page that hasn’t built anything but wants to check engagement before proceeding. It’s only missing fake testimonies and clients.
I am surprised though that they didn’t make it a requirement to pay in TrumpCoin.
The design is so ridiculous, I could see these cards being used as collectibles by douchey crypto bros.
My brother is deep in student loan debt. I skipped college because I couldn't afford to work and go to school.
I keep a collection of screws because they're expensive otherwise.
I can barely keep the lights on as a software dev.
Sure, I eat better than someone from halfway around the world. But likewise we're both being taken advantage of by people of higher social and economic status and deprived of basic needs. We all desire an end to the hierarchy of abuse regardless of where on the totem of who-has-it-worse we are. Now go eat your rice, there are starving kids in Kentucky.
I'll wager if you asked most people what they think "rich" is, the number they pick would not include the vast majority of people posting here on good ol' orange website.
Class war is bad for everyone, yes, but it's a bit silly to generalize and pretend every tech worker is rich just because they pull down high five or low six figures. Doing well, certainly. Not millionaires.
That is, in fact, how it worked. Absolutely no one paid 90% income tax or anything close to it.
Anyone who remembers how the Reagan tax cuts were sold to the public probably remembers that a key component of the campaign was a commitment to close countless tax loopholes.
Yes: they reinvested rather than pocketed revenue.
Anyway, if did the research, you’d see the effective tax rate for the top income earners in US was 40% back then. Substantially higher than it is today.
And that substantially larger portions of revenue were reinvested rather than recognized as profit: high taxes, oddly enough, incentivize investment.
Do the math yourself: $1m in profit, 30% tax rate vs 1% tax rate: which rate incentivizes you to reinvest?
Yes. Amassing obscene wealth is anti-social and immoral. Hording wealth is an action. Anyone with much over $10,000,000 can be assumed to be evil on some level. You don't earn that kind of money, you exploit others for it.
The US has one of the largest militaries in the world and has nearly 75 year of experience in force projection around the world. No one is escaping what happens. It's just that he's turned the beast on it s people first. When it's done gorging itself on "traitors" it'll turn to empire building soon enough. Greed cannot be satisfied.
So a genuine question here regarding the platinum card, as it applies to non-US income for 270 days:
If a corporation decided to apply for this, using a foreign subsidiary that holds US income from abroad—- could that corporation claim personhood and theoretically bring that income into the US tax free? Alternatively, could they funnel funds through a foreign born person to bypass paying taxes on that income?
