U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday that the Trump Gold Card, which makes it possible for any foreigner to buy a visa for $5 million, will be available online within weeks.

Lutnick was a guest at Axios’ streamed event, Building the Future, Wednesday, where he was interviewed by company co-founder Mike Allen about several topics, including President Donald Trump’s offering of a Gold Card.

In March, Trump said the Gold Card would go on sale "very, very soon," explaining it would be like a green card, "but better and more sophisticated." He said the newest path to citizenship in the U.S. would allow the "most successful job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to citizenship."

Allen asked Lutnick when the $5 million Gold Card would be available, and Lutnick said he expected a website called trumpcard.gov to be up and running in about a week.

TRUMP VOWS TO REFUND, DEPORT ANY 'UNSAVORY' IMMIGRANTS WHO TRY FOR CITIZENSHIP UNDER POTENTIAL 'GOLD CARD'

"The details of that will come soon after, but people can start to register. And all that will come over a matter of the next weeks — not month, weeks," Lutnick said.

He also shared a story about a recent "great dinner" in the Middle East with about 400 people.

During the dinner, Lutnick said, he had his phone out when one of the senior leaders walked by and asked why his phone was out.

"I go, ‘I am selling him cards,’" Lutnick said. "So, basically everyone I meet who’s not an American is going to want to buy the card if they have the fiscal capacity."

TRUMP CONTINUES TO PUSH ALTERNATIVE TO CONTROVERSIAL VISA AMID CONCERNS ABOUT CHINESE INFLUENCE

He acknowledged that not everyone will be able to afford a Gold Card, but it will be available to those who can afford to help America pay off its debt.

"Why wouldn’t they want a plan B that says God forbid something bad happens, you come to the airport in America and the person in immigration says, ‘Welcome home.’ Right? As opposed to, ‘Where the heck am I going if something bad’s happening in my country,’" Lutnick continued. 

He noted that everyone will be vetted for a card, adding those who come in with $5 million for a visa are going to be "great people who are going to come and bring businesses and opportunity to America. And they’re going to pay $5 million."

Lutnick offered one more hypothetical scenario, saying if 200,000 people purchase the Gold Card for $5 million, that's $1 trillion.

TRUMP TOUTS $5 MILLION ‘GOLD CARD’ AS NEW PATH TO CITIZENSHIP

"Remember, we get 280,000 visas per year now for free, not counting the 20 million people who broke into this country for nothing under Biden," Lutnick said. "And, so, I want you to think about that. We give it away for free and said Donald Trump’s gonna bring in a trillion dollars for what purpose? To make America better. And it makes perfect sense to me."

TRUMP’S ‘GOLD CARD’ VISA COULD INVITE FRAUD, NATIONAL SECURITY RISKS: EXPERT

Trump has previously touted his plan before to attract the world’s wealthiest to become U.S. citizens, though it comes at a time when he is both clamping down on illegal migration and as universities are increasingly in the spotlight amid soaring school costs and crippling student loans. 

After Trump’s announcement in March, Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center, warned it could invite fraud.

"Any immigration benefit draws fraud. … People are willing to do anything and say just about anything to come to the U.S.," Ries told Fox News Digital. 

In an interview in February with Fox News’ Chief Political Anchor Bret Baier on "Special Report," Lutnick said all candidates will be "deeply vetted."

"These are vetted people," Lutnick told Baier. "These are going to be great global citizens who are going to bring entrepreneurial spirit, capacity and growth to America. If one of them comes in, think of the jobs they are going to bring with them, the businesses they are going to bring with them, and they are going to pay American taxes as well. So, this is huge money for America."

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.

• Adam Kovalčík, age 19, innovated a cheaper, faster way to produce an antiviral drug.
• Galidesivir targets RNA viruses like COVID-19, Ebola, and Zika but hasn't completed clinical trials.
• Kovalčík won a $100,000 science fair award for using corn waste to synthesize the drug.

When Adam Kovalčík flew to Ohio for an international science competition, he did not expect to come home with $100,000.

The 19-year-old from Dulovce, Slovakia won that sum on Friday, though, because he developed a faster and cheaper way to make an experimental antiviral drug called galidesivir, which targets RNA viruses like COVID-19, Ebola, and Zika virus.

"This could be a huge step to help prevent some of these RNA viruses," Chris RoDee, a chemist and retired patent examiner, told Business Insider.

Early studies have shown galidesivir can attack RNA viruses, but it has not undergone full clinical trials. Kovalčík thinks he can encourage further research by slashing the cost of producing the drug — from $75 per gram to about $12.50 per gram.

That's because he used corn waste to synthesize twice as much of the drug in just 10 steps, rather than the 15 steps currently required for manufacturing.

Kovalčík even went one step further: He used his method to make a new drug that could also fight RNA viruses.

Kovalčík presented his findings at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Columbus, Ohio, this week. The judging committee, which RoDee chaired, chose Kovalčík for the competition's top prize: the $100,000 George D. Yancopoulos Innovator Award.

"I cannot describe this feeling," Kovalčík told BI after receiving the award in a lively ceremony on Friday. "I did not expect such a huge international competition to be won by someone from a small village in a small European country, so it was just pure shock."

Student research at ISEF does not go through the rigorous peer-review process that studies pass before they're published in scientific journals.

However, RoDee said that Kovalčík's chemistry was "really elegant" and his presentation to the judges was "bulletproof."

From corn husks to antiviral medicine

Kovalčík's big cost-saving innovation started with corn husks.

Well, it started with furfuryl alcohol, which comes from corn husks and is relatively cheap compared to other starting points for making drugs.

One by one, Kovalčík added chemicals to a flask of furfuryl alcohol in the lab, like building blocks adding to the molecule, until he got a crucial sugar called aza-saccharide. It only took seven steps to get there.

From there, it was only three more steps to get galidesivir.

"He was able to shortcut this entire process," RoDee said. "He basically halved the number of steps because he just went in through a different door."

Kovalčík's process takes five days. The conventional manufacturing method, he said, takes nine days.

Eventually, he produced another drug, too. Based on early computer calculations, Kovalčík thinks his new molecule could be five times as effective as galidesivir against COVID-19 — binding more strongly to enzymes to kill the virus.

Big plans for drugs and perfume

Kovalčík said he's filed a preliminary patent on his drug-synthesis process.

He also plans to work more with a research group at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, which has supported his project so far.

To be used commercially, Kovalčík's drug-manufacturing process would have to scale up. At the moment, he said, he's struggling to find a way to make more than 200 liters of galidesivir.

He also plans to work with the university researchers on improving other drug-synthesis processes.

"They actually have much more designs and much more new drugs to prepare and test," he said.

Kovalčík's ambitions don't end with advancing drug manufacturing, though. He said he also wants to use his chemistry skills and prize money to start a company that manufactures eco-friendly perfumes from corn.

"From the first time I stepped foot into a lab, I knew that I wanted to do something related to chemistry," Kovalčík said.

Now that he's won recognition for it, he added, "I feel incredible."

• Republicans are officially planning to kill the IRS free direct tax-filing tool.
• Trump's "big beautiful bill" includes a provision to terminate the program.
• Republicans have described the tool as wasteful and an example of government overreach.

If Republicans on Capitol Hill get their way, the IRS's free direct tax-filing tool is going away for good.

A 389-page tax bill released by House Republicans on Tuesday includes a provision directing the Secretary of the Treasury to terminate IRS Direct File within 30 days of the bill's passage.

It's not a huge surprise. The program already seemed to be in trouble, with a Treasury official telling BI in April that it was a failed and disappointing program.

Republicans have argued that the tool, which was rolled out in 2024, is wasteful and an example of government overreach. Democrats, on the other hand, have contended that the program represents exactly the kind of government-efficiency project that DOGE should be interested in.

The bill, a key element of what President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have deemed the "One Big Beautiful Bill," is set to be marked up in the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.

The fiscal bill, the centerpiece of Trump's legislative agenda, could face tweaks as Republicans in both chambers hash out differences among themselves over the next several weeks.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith referred BI to a June 2024 statement from the Missouri Republican that criticized the program.

"This latest attempt to circumvent Congress and establish a new tax program only serves to further undermine the fraying trust between the agency and the public," Smith said at the time.

The bill also allocates $15 million to study the creation of a new public-private partnership to provide free tax filing for up to 70% of taxpayers. That program would replace both IRS Direct File and other free tax filing services.