Topline
On Thursday, President Donald Trump acknowledged concerns from the agriculture and hospitality industries that his strict immigration policies are making it harder to retain long-time workers—even as his own company continues importing foreign workers through legal visa programs to staff its clubs and Virginia vineyard.
A landscaper works outside President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 9, 2024, the day after FBI ... More
In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump said his “very aggressive policy on immigration” is driving away long-time workers, citing complaints from the agricultural and hospitality industries—jobs those businesses are struggling to fill.
At the same time, the Trump Organization has consistently made use of temporary visa programs to hire foreign workers for Mar-a-Lago, four golf clubs and his Virginia winery—filing to bring in at least 1,880 seasonal workers since 2008, including 382 during Trump’s first term, according to Department of Labor data.
The company’s use of short-term, temporary visas has increased steadily in recent years, from requesting 121 in 2021 to asking for a high of 178 in 2024.
So far for 2025, the Trump Organization has posted to hire 31 foreign temporary workers for its winery, working from February through mid-October.
The jobs—primarily servers, clerks, housekeepers, kitchen staff and farm workers—pay between $14.17 and $23.01 an hour.
Spokespeople for the White House and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to inquiries.
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social. “In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”
Trump’s latest remarks come as his second-term immigration crackdown—including stepped-up deportation flights and workplace raids—has drawn protests in several cities, including major demonstrations in Los Angeles this week.
U.S. law allows companies to hire foreign workers through temporary visas when they can’t fill jobs with U.S. applicants. The Trump Organization has made use repeatedly of two such programs—H-2A for agricultural workers, like those at his Virginia winery, and H-2B for hospitality jobs at clubs like Mar-a-Lago. To use these programs, businesses must first get approval from the Labor Department, then petition the Department of Homeland Security, before the State Department issues visas abroad. When Trump’s clubs in Florida sought permission to hire foreign workers in July 2024, the state’s unemployment rate was 3.3%, according to the governor’s office.
Six: The number of Trump businesses that applied to hire foreign workers since 2008. Trump is the sole owner of all of them through a web of companies and a revocable trust that allows him to profit while in office. The Trump Organization confirmed in an April filing in the United Kingdom that the president retains control over his businesses.
It’s unclear where the Trump Organization’s foreign workers are coming from. The Department of Labor does not disclose the nationalities of the foreign workers, though workers from 90 countries—including El Salvador, Haiti and several African nations—are eligible. In 2018, referring to immigrants from those regions, Trump asked lawmakers, “Why are we having all these people from s—hole countries come here?,” The Washington Post reported.
Trump’s Bedminster golf club fired about a dozen undocumented workers in 2019—after years of employing them—just as his administration ramped up immigration raids nationwide, The Washington Post reported at the time.
The two properties Trump visits most often these days—Mar-a-Lago and his golf club in Bedminster—are among his businesses that have sought foreign workers. Both properties were at the center of a Justice Department investigation for allegedly improperly storing classified documents. He was indicted in 2023 on 40 felony charges related to his retention of government documents, but the case was dismissed after his reelection in November.
Historically, the Labor Department has received applications in July from Trump’s Florida properties to hire temporary workers for the winter.
Forbes estimates Trump is worth $5.4 billion, with hundreds of millions tied to Mar-a-Lago, his golf clubs and the Virginia winery—businesses that continue to rely on temporary foreign labor.
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