President Donald Trump is backing an Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort to confirm that all the U.S. gold reserves at Ft. Knox are really there.
Trump’s support of the move on Wednesday comes after it was revealed there is no yearly review for the world-renowned stash at the Kentucky facility, leading to wild online speculation that some or all of the depository’s more than 8,100 tones may not be accounted for.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has insisted it’s all there.
ELON MUSK’S DOGE PREPARES TO AUDIT US GOLD RESERVES AT FORT KNOX AFTER URGING BY SEN. RAND PAUL
“We’re going to go into Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there… do you know about that?” Trump said to a reporter aboard Air Force One, according to a video posted to X by Musk.
“We hope everything is fine with Fort Knox, but we’re going to go into Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there.”
Another reporter seemed perplexed and asked: “Where would the gold have gone?”
“If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset,” Trump said.
Musk captioned the post, writing, “A live stream of Fort Knox would be [fire],” followed by two fire emojis.
The tech billionaire and DOGE chief has been traveling with Trump aboard Air Force One and has spent days posting about this issue.
“Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox?” he wrote Monday. “Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not.”
Earlier Wednesday, Bessent was asked about the massive reserve.
“We do an audit every year,” Bessent said, according to The Associated Press. “All the gold is present and accounted for.”
Bessent said he would be happy to arrange an inspection for any senator who is interested, the outlet reported amid calls Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for greater transparency about the massive reserve.
Paul told “FOX & Friends” earlier this week that he has been trying to verify it himself for a decade.
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“I think some of them may not think it needs to be audited all the time, but I think the more sunlight, the better, more transparency, the better,” Paul said.
“And also, it brings attention to the fact that gold still has value and implicitly, not explicitly, but implicitly, gold still gives value to the dollar.
“That’s why we don’t get rid of it,” he continued. “We’ve got it. The IMF has it, the World Bank has it. Most of the central banks… around the world have gold, and it’s an implicit trust that the dollar still has some backing.”
Paul’s father, former presidential candidate Ron Paul, also called for Fort Knox’s gold to be audited and proposed a bill in 2011 to do just that.
Fort. Knox’s massive reserve has reportedly been valued at $425 billion according to the New York Post, with the rest of the United States’ highly sought-after metal being stored in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Critics have called for greater transparency regarding the stash after it was revealed the top-secret locations are not subject to a yearly audit.
Paul said he received permission to visit during the first Trump administration, but the trip did not materialize.
Then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., visited the vaults in 2017. They reported that, despite various conspiracy theories, the gold was present.
