--- title: "Elon Musk Is Running a “Quiet Trial” of Trump’s “Gold Card” Billionaire Immigration Program" description: "South African-born Elon Musk says he's \"doing a quiet trial\" of president Donald Trump's dubious \"gold card\" immigration program." date: "2025-05-12" modified: "2025-05-12" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-trial-trump-gold-card" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "donald trump" - "elon musk" - "immigration" - "oligarch" --- # Elon Musk Is Running a “Quiet Trial” of Trump’s “Gold Card” Billionaire Immigration Program ![South African-born Elon Musk says he's "doing a quiet trial" of president Donald Trump's dubious "gold card" immigration program.]() *\Image: Andrew Harnik / Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty / Futurism\* South African-born Elon Musk, who became a US citizen in 2002 after moving to the country seven years prior, says he's "doing a quiet trial" of president Donald Trump's dubious "gold card" immigration program. The pay-to-enter scheme allows obscenely rich foreign "[broligarchs]()" to fast-track their US residency application by shelling out a whopping $5 million upfront — a program Musk personally could've greatly benefited from. "We're doing a quiet trial to make sure the system works properly," he [tweeted]() over the weekend. "Once it is fully tested, it will be rolled out to the public with an announcement by the President." Details surrounding Musk's own immigration journey remain murky to this day. The biographical narrative goes that Musk entered America from Canada on an F-1 student visa when he went to the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1990s before securing an H-1B visa (for temporary foreign workers), followed by his U.S. citizenship in 2002. Last year, the [*Washington Post* reported]() that the mercurial CEO may have begun working illegally in the US in the 1990s on a student visa. He once [described his past immigration status]() as a "gray area," even after his brother Kimball Musk described both himself and Elon as "illegal immigrants." "As an immigrant to the United States, I am extremely pro-immigrant," he [said]() during a 2023 live stream. Despite claiming to be pro-immigrant, his stance on immigration has been anything but, as it's frequently rooted in xenophobic rhetoric involving [conspiracy theories]() and unfounded claims. In February, he appeared to [endorse the idea of race-based immigration](), [agreeing]() with a user on his social media platform that South Africans were "being persecuted for their race in their home country." Put simply, Trump’s approach of allowing millionaires to apply for residency by spending obscene amounts of cash appears to fall perfectly in line with Musk's agenda. "You have a green card, this is a gold card," the president [boasted]() to reporters earlier this year. "We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship." "I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people," he told reporters at the time. The Trump administration has since maintained that the system the gold card program would replace was "full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud," [according to commerce secretary Howard Lutnick](). In short, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Musk has fully endorsed the idea of letting Russian oligarchs gain US citizenship by paying their way through the system. After previously decrying the immigration process — which Musk went through (mostly) legally — the billionaire is now yanking up the ladder behind him, making baseless claims about "illegal" immigrants and standing behind an administration violating due process rights by detaining and deporting immigrants (and even US citizens) in growing numbers. **More on immigration:** *[Trump’s Deportation Airline Just Got Hacked by Anonymous]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()