For a processing fee and, after DHS vetting, a $5 million contribution, you will have the ability to spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income.
Fuckin'... what?
Why do I have to pay a processing fee before giving you 5 million dollars?
Why is it "up to 270 days"? Who is going to be swayed by this perk when they opt for the platinum card instead of the gold? What the fuck is all this? I understand selling residency, a lot of shithole countries do that, it's usually successful at what they are trying to achieve with it. Why are you immediately walking it back with all these nonsensical asterisks though? Did someone put this page together subversively, because they really want people to look at how un-benevolent the whole package is and start to think twice about who it is exactly that they're making this Faustian bargain with?
Yes, I get all that. What I'm saying is that you're making it pretty clear that they're getting a corrupt bargain but you're still going to make them go through all the bullshit.
Like if you show up in Dubai and give $5 million dollars to the right person, I'm pretty sure they don't make you stand in line and pay your visa processing fee, and then say you can only stay 270 days and you have to scram or else they'll be in trouble. You just get to come hang out.
Just either be aboveboard, and make them go through all the hassle, or have them give you 5 million dollars and then say "Hey broski, we'll take care of it." Just talk to your friends that you nominated to run the IRS and say "Hey this guy's offshore income is going to be $17 and some change, we're fine with that, right? He's a friend of mine." That kind of thing. Give the IRS a little list of the few hundred $5 million platinum card holders and make sure they have some vague understanding of what to do with the information. I don't get this weird middle-ground bullshit where they're paying the bribe, but they're still getting treated like a pleb and made to go through the bureaucracy.
I mean honestly the way it reads to me is that they kind of want to keep an eye on you, they want to put themselves in the position of deciding whether or not you're allowed back into the country every 270+90 days. I feel like most people who are in that "not American while having to be at the mercy of US immigration" category, intersected with the "capable enough to have $5 million to throw around" category, are probably going to be able to see through that stuff. That's what I was saying, more to the point.
It's just more of Trump's MO. He's transactional, like pathologically so to where it's all he really understands, but the other person never actually gets their end of the transaction. He just gets his and then the other person gets fucked. That really comes through to me reading this, because of how convoluted it sounds even when they're trying to make it sound like this wonderful thing.