The numbers have been tallied, the math has been strenuously calculated, and the results are in: Exactly one person—as in not a few, not even two, but a single individual—has been approved for Trump’s so-called “Gold Card” visa.
Indeed, that was the count provided by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during his testimony this week in front of a House Appropriations subcommittee on the president’s 2027 budget request. In response, some may be wondering whether Nicki Minaj, whose unfortunate MAGA-ification amid Trump’s second term is well-documented, is the lone Gold Card holder in question.
The answer, expectedly, is far more nuanced than what Minaj herself previously claimed. Below, we take a closer look.
What the hell is a “Gold Card” visa anyway?
The Trump administration claims that the Gold Card is “a visa based upon an individual’s ability to provide a substantial benefit to the United States.” Applicants are required to pay a nonrefundable processing fee of $15,000. If an applicant’s vetting process is completed, a “$1 million gift” is also required to be paid. Approved applicants, at least according to the White House, receive “lawful permanent resident status as an EB-1 or EB-2 visa holder.”
Just one person has been approved for the Gold Card, according to Lutnick
“The process was recently resolved with DHS, who runs the program and they do … the most serious vetting and analysis of any potential applicant in the history of government,” Lutnick said during his testimony this week when asked about the Gold Card. “Usually, it was $600. These pay $15,000 for an extraordinary vet. So, they have approved recently one person and there are hundreds in the queue that are going through the process. But this is a new program and they’ve just set it up and they wanted to make sure they did it perfectly. We’ve worked through it but it’s a DHS program with a rigorous, rigorous vetting.”
What does this have to do with Nicki Minaj?
In January, Minaj claimed in a post on X that she had received a Gold Card “free of charge.” In another post that same month, she included a photo of what appeared to be the card.
Does Nicki Minaj actually have a Gold Card?
Not exactly, according to an anonymous White House official quoted in a New York Times report in January. The official, as seen here, explained that the card was instead a mere “memento,” i.e. not an actual “visa document.” The report went on to note that Minaj, who in 2018 spoke publicly about first coming to the U.S. “as an illegal immigrant” when she was five years of age, was further clarified by an unnamed DHS official as having been a legal permanent resident for about 20 years.
