Trump’s $5 million “gold card” / investor-visa idea was formally announced on February 25, 2025, with broad press coverage describing it as a proposed replacement for EB‑5 and pricing residency at $5 million.(reuters.com) Over the following months, reporting focused on design details, quiet trials, and legal doubts—immigration lawyers repeatedly stressed that the program lacked clear legal authority and implementation rules, and some advisors even stated that no cards had actually been sold yet or that the initiative was still only at a waitlist / conceptual stage.(thedailybeast.com) In September 2025 Trump signed an executive order creating a revised Gold Card framework at lower $1–2 million “gift” levels, with a 90‑day setup window and applications still not open as of fall 2025.(en.wikipedia.org)

Across startup/VC, tech, and immigration coverage, there are no public reports of any non‑U.S. startup founder selling at least $5 million of secondary equity in a funding round specifically to finance purchase of a Trump Gold Card/visa, nor any anecdote of that type becoming a known case. Articles that mention founders and the Gold Card only describe them as a potential beneficiary class or hypothetical users, not as people who have actually done such a secondary sale to buy one.(economictimes.indiatimes.com) Given (1) the program’s delayed and still‑uncertain rollout, and (2) the absence of any documented case “you are going to hear about” within a few months of the announcement—or even by November 30, 2025—the prediction that such founder secondaries would publicly materialize in that timeframe has not come true.