US President Donald Trump’s senior advisor, Elon Musk, has urged the US government to conduct an audit of the gold reserves stored at Fort Knox military base in Kentucky. The move comes as decades-old conspiracy theories surround the storage and security of the country’s gold reserves.
Musk questioned whether the gold is still present at the facility, stating that it should be reviewed annually. His comments follow those of Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who responded with “Let’s do it.” Musk also replied to a post from Senator Mike Lee, expressing skepticism about the lack of information on the gold’s whereabouts.
Fort Knox, located 40 miles south of Louisville, is home to more than 147 million ounces of US gold reserves. The base has previously stored historic artifacts, including the Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
The last reported audit at Fort Knox was in 1974, when several Congressional representatives assured the public that the supply remained intact. Since then, there have been no official audits or tours of the facility, except for a rare visit by US Sen. Mitch McConnell, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and Congressional representatives in 2017.
Musk’s comments sparked a discussion about the security and storage of the country’s gold reserves. The White House clarified that Musk is not overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was previously announced by Trump as his head.
The US Mint states that there are 147.4 million ounces of gold stored at Fort Knox, making it the largest gold reserve in the world. The country holds more than twice as much gold as Germany’s stash.
Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/18/elon-musk-gold-fort-knox/79102837007