President Donald Trump expressed his continued interest in inspecting Fort Knox to personally verify the presence of the nation’s gold reserves, which are valued at nearly $700 billion. This comes in light of concerns raised last year regarding the security of the highly protected bullion depository.
“We wanted to go and knock on the door of Fort Knox — a very thick door — and to see whether or not we have any gold in there,” Trump told “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” in a wide-ranging interview that was aired on Sunday.
Last year, Elon Musk, the former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), responded to a suggestion from a social media user that he should inspect the country’s gold reserves. The gold stored at the ultra-secure facility in Kentucky accounts for half of the government’s overall gold supply. However, it is not entirely clear when the facility last underwent a comprehensive audit, according to a report by the New York Post.
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“It’s a very interesting question. We played with that. I wonder if they left the gold in Fort Knox, because they steal a lot,” the president mused to Attkisson. “I do want to go to Fort Knox sometime. I want to see if the gold is there, which I’m sure it will be.”
Access to Fort Knox’s vaults has been heavily restricted for decades. In 1974, journalists and a Congressional delegation were granted a tour amidst speculation that the government’s valuable gold reserves had been looted. In 2017, then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin visited Fort Knox to inspect the gold stash, The Post reported, adding:
There’s at least 147.3 million ounces — 9.2 million lbs. — worth of gold sitting in the vaunted bullion, whose elaborate security has become something of a cultural phenomenon.
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The government assesses the book value of $42.22 per ounce, totaling about $6.2 billion, according to data from the US Mint. But that’s far below market value, which is hovering around $4,700 an ounce.
Technically, the largest gold vault in the US and in the world sits in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building, but that includes other countries’ stashes too.
Fort Knox’s significance to the U.S. economy has diminished since the country abandoned the gold standard for the dollar in 1971. For more than a century before that, the government maintained gold stockpiles to support the dollar.
Today, the gold is merely another asset held by the Federal Reserve. Discussions about inspecting Fort Knox to verify the government’s gold reserves faded after Elon Musk raised the issue last year, said The Post.
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During his second term, Trump has embraced his background as a real estate mogul, often inspecting and renovating government properties.
Last week, in a first for the country, he drove the presidential motorcade down by the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to personally oversee the renovations taking place there. Trump had instructed his “pool guy” to apply an “American flag blue” coating to the iconic monument.
Trump began teasing a trip to Fort Knox last summer. “We’re gonna go into Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there,” Trump said in July.
Trump made similar comments in February, telling reporters, “You know that? We’re gonna go into Fort Knox. Do you know about that?”
“One of the things we do want to look — I mean, we hope everything’s fine with Fort Knox, but we’re gonna go to Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there,” he said.
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“Where would the gold have gone?” a reporter asked. “If the gold isn’t there, we’re gonna be very upset,” the president replied.
That week, Gold opened at $2,950.01 an ounce on the markets, so the price per ounce has nearly doubled since then.
In addition to storing gold reserves, Fort Knox also serves as the U.S. Army’s Human Resources Command Center and hosts the Army’s largest annual training event each summer, the Economic Times reported.
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