MAKE IT MAKE SENSE: Monetizing the American Dream

The Trump Gold Card is available now to qualifying oligarchs -- operators are standing by!

In today’s letter: With the announcement of a golden visa, U.S. citizenship is for sale. Who’s buying, what do they get — and what do we get?

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THE GIST: Golden ticket

Since Emma Lazarus published “The New Colossus” in 1883, generations around the world have imagined the United States (even if it didn’t always live up to the reality) as a place of refuge, ready to receive “your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and turn them into successes, freed of the deprivations and burdens of the past. The image of the Mother of Exiles lifting her lamp beside the golden door has been central to the American Dream.

But that’s not exclusive enough for Donald Trump. As it turns out, he isn’t so much opposed to immigration per se — it’s that he imagines the golden door as more of a velvet rope, keeping out the wretched refuse.

So, who’s the bouncer planning to let into Club America?