Trump to Congress: “Days of Rule by Unelected Bureaucrats Are Over”; Gold Card Announced; 10-for-1 Deregulation

In his joint address to Congress on March 5, 2025, President Trump declared that “the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over” and warned that “any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately.” He described a federal bureaucracy that had grown for “nearly 100 years” until it “crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America’s potential.” Trump announced the Gold Card program to Congress — “$5 million” for “the most successful, job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship” — and directed that “for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated."

"A Mandate for Bold and Profound Change”

Trump opened the governance segment of his address by invoking the electoral mandate that justified the administration’s aggressive reform agenda.

“Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change,” Trump said.

He then delivered a historical indictment of the federal bureaucracy that traced the problem back nearly a century. “For nearly 100 years, the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America’s potential in every possible way,” Trump said.

The framing placed the bureaucratic problem beyond any single administration or party. This was not Biden’s bureaucracy or Obama’s bureaucracy — it was an institutional accretion that had been building since the New Deal era. By identifying the problem as a century in the making, Trump was arguing that the solutions needed to be equally fundamental.

He contrasted the nation’s founding character with its current condition. “The nation founded by pioneers and risk-takers now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt,” Trump said. “Approvals that should take 10 days to get instead take 10 years, 15 years, and even 20 years — before you reject it.”

The “before you reject it” addendum drew knowing laughter from the chamber. It captured the particular cruelty of a regulatory system that not only delayed but ultimately denied — forcing businesses and individuals to spend years and millions of dollars seeking approval for projects that were never going to be approved in the first place.

”Hundreds of Thousands Not Showing Up to Work”

Trump then addressed the workforce dimension of the bureaucratic problem.

“Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work,” he said.

The claim connected the DOGE email findings — millions of non-respondents, ghost employees, and teleworkers with empty offices — to the broader argument about government dysfunction. The federal workforce was not merely large; a significant portion of it was not performing any work at all.

”Removed from Office Immediately”

Trump delivered the ultimatum that would define the administration’s approach to bureaucratic resistance.

“My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again,” Trump said. “And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately.”

He added the declaration that became the evening’s most quoted governance line: “Because we are draining the swamp. It’s very simple. And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.”

The “removed immediately” warning was directed at career officials across the government who had been resisting DOGE access, refusing to respond to work accountability emails, or slow-walking the implementation of executive orders. Trump was telling them, from the floor of Congress in front of the nation, that resistance would be met with termination — not after a review process, not after an appeals hearing, but immediately.

The “unelected bureaucrats” framing placed the confrontation in democratic terms. The voters had elected Trump. The bureaucrats had been elected by no one. When the two were in conflict, the democratically chosen president’s authority superseded the institutional preferences of career officials.

10-for-1 Deregulation

Trump announced the specific mechanism for reducing the regulatory burden.

“To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated,” Trump said. “Just like I did in my very successful first term.”

During Trump’s first term, the administration had implemented a 2-for-1 deregulation policy, requiring agencies to eliminate two existing regulations for every new one they proposed. The 10-for-1 ratio represented a fivefold escalation of that approach.

The “unshackle” metaphor conveyed the administration’s view that American economic potential was being physically restrained by regulation. The economy was not merely slowed by regulatory costs; it was chained — and the administration was breaking those chains at a ratio of 10-to-1.

The Gold Card: Formally Announced to Congress

Trump used the joint address to formally present the Gold Card program to the legislative branch and the nation.

“With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the Gold Card, which goes on sale very, very soon,” Trump said.

He described the terms: “For $5 million, we will allow the most successful, job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship.”

Trump characterized the Gold Card relative to the existing green card: “It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated.”

He outlined the tax structure: “These people will have to pay tax in our country. They won’t have to pay tax from where they came — the money that they’ve made — you wouldn’t want to do that. But they have to pay tax, create jobs.”

Trump then described a specific use case that connected the Gold Card to American competitiveness. “They’ll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country, instead of having them being forced out,” he said. “Number one at the top school, as an example, being forced out and not being allowed to stay and create tremendous numbers of jobs and great success.”

The college example addressed a longstanding frustration in the technology and business communities: foreign students who graduated at the top of their classes from American universities were often forced to leave the country because they could not secure work visas. The Gold Card would allow companies to sponsor those students, keeping the talent in America rather than sending it back to compete against American firms from abroad.

”Brilliant, Hardworking, Job-Creating People”

Trump drew an explicit contrast between the immigration the administration was stopping and the immigration the Gold Card would encourage.

“So while we take out the criminals who were allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people — the Democrats, the Biden administration, the open border insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country — we will now bring in brilliant, hardworking, job-creating people,” Trump said.

He connected the program to the fiscal agenda: “They’re going to pay a lot of money, and we’re going to reduce our debt with that money.”

The juxtaposition was the core of the administration’s immigration message: not anti-immigration, but pro-merit. The same president who was conducting the largest deportation operation in American history was simultaneously creating a program to attract the world’s most talented and wealthiest individuals. The distinction was between illegal immigration (which harmed American workers and communities) and merit-based immigration (which created jobs and generated revenue).

Key Takeaways

• Trump declared “the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over” and warned that “any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately.”
• He described a federal bureaucracy that had grown “for nearly 100 years” until it “crushed our freedoms” and noted “hundreds of thousands of federal workers have not been showing up to work.”
• Trump directed 10-for-1 deregulation: “for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated,” a fivefold escalation from his first-term 2-for-1 policy.
• He formally announced the Gold Card to Congress: $5 million for “the most successful, job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship.”
• Trump contrasted deporting criminals under Biden’s “insane policies” with bringing in “brilliant, hardworking, job-creating people” whose payments would “reduce our debt.”