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The former president’s family business increased its recruitment of overseas employees on short-term work permits this period, while his government was creating barriers for other businesses wanting to do the same, a report published recently stated.

According to information from the federal labor department, the Trump Organization sought to bring in at least 184 overseas employees in the coming year for temporary positions at the US president’s Florida property, two golf clubs and his winery in Virginia.

The quantity of requests for H-2A and H-2B visas for workers including servers, clerks, housekeepers, kitchen staff and farm workers was the highest ever submitted by the company, and up from over 120 in the previous term, when Trump’s first term concluded.

It was also the fifth instance in 10 years that the former president had attempted to hire over a hundred foreign employees for temporary positions at Mar-a-Lago, based on available data.

The revelation coincides with a tightening on legal immigration by his administration that has included the implementation of a substantial charge on skilled worker visas; extra scrutiny of the actions of the 55 million people who possess American work permits; and restrictive new rules for foreign students and journalists.

Overall, the business sought to employ 566 foreign laborers over the five years Trump has been in the presidency, from 2017 to 2021 and during 2025.

Notably, the former president was criticized by some in the Republican party this week for remarks justifying the need for overseas employees when a company was unable to find people with “particular skills” to occupy certain positions.

“You cannot just say a country is coming in, going to invest $10bn to construct a facility, and going to recruit individuals off an unemployment line who haven’t worked in years, and they’re going to start making their defense systems. It doesn’t work that effectively,” he told a interviewer after she suggested that overseas employees undercut the pay of US workers.

The White House refused a inquiry for response, and the business did not provide an answer to an request for information.