Thursday, February 27, 2025

RE Fort Knox

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President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are planning a trip to the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in Kentucky. They want to see if the American people still have their gold. There are supposed to be roughly 4,583 metric tons of gold there, worth about $291 billion.

“We’re actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tons of gold,” Trump said Monday.

Musk brought up the issue during an interview at CPAC over the weekend, which he sat down for while sporting a large pair of sunglasses, his trademark “goth” MAGA hat, and what looked like a gold chain necklace.

America is now asking, is the gold still there?

Be informed, not misled. 

The New American published an excellent article yesterday on the subject of the gold. I have drawn from their article and others to give us a little background on Fort Knox and the gold.

“I think we all want to see it. Like, this is your gold, by the way. It’s the public’s gold,” Musk said. The interviewer then asked him if he believed the gold wasn’t there. “I don’t know,” Musk answered. “We want to go see it, make sure somebody didn’t spray paint some lead or something.” He suggested a live tour so people can watch from home.

Verifying the largest gold reserves in the world wasn’t at the top of most Americans’ minds when they voted for Trump in November. But it turns out it’s not a new issue and that there’s quite a bit of support for an audit — a true audit.

Should there be an audit of Fort Knox?

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, under whose purview this issue falls, apparently has a different view on the matter.

He told Bloomberg recently that he has no plans to visit Fort Knox. Moreover, he added, there’s nothing to worry about:

"I can tell you we do an audit every year. I can tell the American people, on camera right now, that there’s a report, September 30, 2024 — all the gold is there. Any U.S. Senator who wants to come and visit can arrange a visit through our office."

Actually, they can't. Or won't.

Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) said on February 17 that he’s tried “repeatedly” to get into Fort Knox and see the gold. But he’s been turned away every time. He said the first excuse he received was that he wasn’t allowed because it’s a military base. He pointed out that he visits military bases often. The last response he received was a simple “no.” “Makes me wonder,” he concluded.

Others are also wondering.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is also on board with a trip to Fort Knox. Paul, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, in a letter to Bessent on February 19, urged a full inspection, including gold testing, citing the need for greater transparency and oversight.

Seeking to audit the fortress of gold runs in the Paul family. Senator Paul’s father, former Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), unsuccessfully tried to initiate an audit in 1981.

“How much gold do we have, especially if we want to go back to gold? Do we even still have it?” Ron Paul asked during a recent podcast.

Ron Paul is concerned that Trump may find that everything is not “hunky dory.” He suggested this may be the reason for the pushback. He said his 1981 audit failed after 15 of 17 members of the Gold Commission voted against it, which he found interesting.

Suspicions regarding the people’s gold have existed for decades. Some, like Trump, wonder if there is any gold at all. Maybe it’s been stolen. Others suspect there isn’t nearly as much gold as the U.S. government says there is. Perhaps the United States has been slowly selling it in untracked international trading. There are additional suspicions that even what gold there might be is no longer the property of the American people. The Gold Anti-trust Action Committee (GATA) investigates the nature and extent of gold being reported by the world’s central banks and commodities exchanges. They believe the amount of gold reported to exist in the marketplace is exaggerated to keep the price low. GATA co-founder Chris Powell told the History Channel it’s also quite possible someone else owns America’s gold:

Governments need to control gold in order to sustain the value of their currency and sustain the value of their bonds. And to do this, now the U.S. government has resorted to rigging the gold market. We believe that the primary purpose of these gold swaps is surreptitious intervention in the gold market. For example, the United States may decide that in February it needs 50 tons of gold to be sold in the London market in order to keep the gold price under control, but does not want to be the central bank identified doing this. So the United States could call up the German Central Bank and say, ‘Listen, we’d like you to sell 50 tons of gold in London. Would you please do that and we will give you, in exchange, a title to 50 tons of gold vaulted at the depository in Fort Knox.

Rumors about the gold were rampant in 1974, when a dozen congressmen and 100 journalists were allowed into Fort Knox. Illinois Representative Philip Crane played a major role in initiating the tour, which he did to put to bed the suspicions. But it turns out that the audit did the opposite. 

Ron Paul calls the 1974 audit “fake,” a sentiment many skeptics share. Reasons include the fact that the audit wasn’t fully independent. It was conducted by U.S. Treasury employees alongside General Accounting Office auditors, and the Treasury had a vested interest in the outcome. Another issue with the 1974 audit was that only 21 percent of the gold was physically verified, and the tour was limited.

Skeptics don't give the annual audit Bessent mentioned much weight. They believe that because they’re internal, they can’t be trusted. Moreover, skeptics believe that audits are nothing more than bookkeeping measures rather than physical verifications.

A little history of Fort Knox

What is the Fort Knox depository?

The United States Bullion Depository, located at Fort Knox in Kentucky, has stored reserves for the United States since 1937. It is also the Army’s human resources command center and hosts the largest annual training camp each summer.

Fort Knox is over 100,000 acres and about 35 miles south of Louisville, Kentucky. According to the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation, it was created during World War I as Camp Knox, an artillery range named after Major General Henry Knox.

During World War II, the Army created the Armored Force there, ordering thousands of soldiers to go to Fort Knox and be introduced to the tank. According to The Associated Press, it was known as the “Home of Cavalry and Armor” for almost 80 years.

President FDR raised the fixed price of gold to $35 an ounce, almost double the price it was when he took it from the people. The government then used the profit to implement the New Deal.

FDR built Fort Knox to store all the wealth. He wanted it to be away from the coast, where it was more vulnerable to attacks. Moreover, it was near the Fort Knox military base, automatically providing security.

Today, America’s gold reserves are held in four U.S. mint depositories: Denver, West Point, New York’s Federal Reserve, and, of course, Fort Knox in Kentucky, the largest of the four.

The government has used Fort Knox to store not only gold but some of the nation’s most important documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

Takeaway

Forbes is trying to knock down the questions about the gold in Fort Knox.

They published this list of key "facts."

  • "We're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there. Because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tons of gold,” Trump said Monday afternoon at the White House.
  • Beginning last weekend, Musk started the high-level scrutiny of the gold, making several social media posts questioning the state of the government’s infamous gold reserves at Fort Knox, asking if the gold is “still there” or “gone” and calling for a “live video walkthrough” of the facility.
  • There’s no evidence to support theories about missing gold, and the Trump-appointed official nominally in charge of the gold, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, says the gold is accounted for, but the state of the reserve is tightly sealed.
  • The U.S. Bullion Depository in Fort Knox, Kentucky, holds 147.3 million troy ounces of gold, or about 59% of the Treasury’s total supply, according to the U.S. Mint.
  • With gold trading at more than $2,960 per troy ounce on the open market Monday, that means the Fort Knox gold has a market value of $436 billion, more than the market value of Europe’s most valuable public company, Tiffany and Louis Vuitton parent LVMH.
  • However, the government denotes the value of this gold at Fort Knox as just $6 billion based on the government-set book value for gold of $42.22 per troy ounce.

We'll see. Maybe.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Pray for our country.

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