Sorry, Rich Foreigners. Sounds Like Trump’s Golden Visas Aren’t Going to Happen.

We occasionally take comfort in the wisdom of Guy Clark, the late Texas poet and songwriter, who once concluded, “You’d have thought there’s less fools in this world.” However, we seem to have found the exception that proves his rule. From The Washington Post:

Since February, the Trump administration has been touting a $5 million visa to wealthy foreigners to get into the United States with lofty promises of an immediate rollout. Aboard Air Force One in April, President Donald Trump flashed a laminated, golden prototype to reporters and announced that it would become available “in about less than two weeks,” while the White House launched a website in June to sign people up to join a waiting list. But in reality, any Trump gold visas are a long way off—if they can ever be implemented at all.

I, for one, am stunned.

Trump and his aides have repeatedly exaggerated the likelihood that such a program can be implemented under current law, and they have made no effort to introduce legislation to make it happen. Immigration attorneys and other legal experts say a president has no power to unilaterally create a new visa category, which would require an act of Congress.

The gold card visa exemplifies a striking contrast in the Trump administration’s immigration stance, which is focused primarily on championing aggressive restrictions and deportations while proposing a fast track for the ultra-wealthy. Critics have argued that the proposal would turn access to the U.S. into a commodity for sale and reflects a transactional approach to immigration out of step with American values.

That’s an awful lot of words to describe turning immigration policy into a tacky souvenir suitable for bribery, money-laundering, and Christ alone knows what else. It takes a real genius for the tawdry to use something that tacky as the key to something that important. He’s Willy Wonka with automatic weapons.