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The former president’s corporate entity increased its recruitment of overseas employees on short-term work permits this year, while his administration was placing obstacles for other companies wanting to do the same, a report published Thursday claimed.

Based on information from the federal labor department, the Trump Organization sought to bring in at least nearly 200 overseas employees in the coming year for temporary positions at the former president’s Florida property, golf facilities and his winery in Virginia.

The number of requests for H-2A and H-2B visas covering staff including waitstaff, office assistants, housekeepers, kitchen staff and agricultural laborers was the record submitted by the organization, and increased from over 120 in the previous term, when Trump’s first term concluded.

It was also the fifth instance in a decade that Trump had sought to bring in more than 100 foreign employees for temporary positions at his Florida resort, according to available data.

The disclosure coincides with a crackdown on immigration laws by his administration that has involved the implementation of a $100,000 fee on H1-B visas; increased review of the activities of the 55 million people who possess US visas; and restrictive new rules for foreign students and journalists.

In total, the Trump Organization sought to employ over 560 overseas workers over the period Trump has been in the presidency, from 2017 to 2021 and during 2025.

Notably, the former president was questioned by some in the Republican party this week for remarks justifying the need for foreign workers when a company was unable to find people with “particular skills” to fill particular roles.

“You can’t just say a nation is entering, going to invest $10bn to build a facility, and going to recruit individuals off an unemployment line who have been unemployed in five years, and they’re going to start making their missiles. It doesn’t work that well,” he told a host after she suggested that overseas employees lower the wages of US workers.

The administration declined a request for response, and the Trump Organization did not provide an answer to an inquiry.