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Trump Claims He’ll Join Musk to Investigate Gold Reserves at Fort Knox


Speculation regarding the status of the gold at the highly secured military facility near Louisville persists following the president’s remarks.

On Saturday, President Donald Trump confirmed that he and Elon Musk will visit Fort Knox to verify the presence of gold.

Since the late 1930s, Fort Knox has served as the repository for a significant portion of the United States’ official gold reserves, boasting impressive security measures. Last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that annual audits confirm “all the gold is present and accounted for.”

During the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday, Trump announced, “we’re also going to Fort Knox” and mentioned he would be accompanied by Musk.

“Would anyone like to join us? We want to see if the gold is still there,” he stated.

Trump further commented, “Wouldn’t it be terrible if we opened it up and found no gold?” adding, “So we’re going to open those doors.”

The president also cautioned the audience not to be surprised if, upon opening the vaults, there was nothing inside. He did not specify when he plans to visit the base during his speech.

“We will take a look, and if there’s 27 tons of gold, we’ll be very pleased,” Trump mentioned to the CPAC crowd. “I’m not sure how we’ll measure it, but that’s alright. We want to see plenty of beautiful, shiny gold at Fort Knox.”

“Don’t be completely surprised if we open the door and find, ‘There’s nothing here; they stole it all too!’” he added.

Both Trump and Musk, who serves as a senior adviser to the president, expressed a desire to investigate the situation of the Fort Knox gold reserves last week.

On social media platform X, Musk requested live-streamed coverage from within Fort Knox, asserting, “The ratings on a live broadcast of Fort Knox would be [fire],” he wrote on Feb. 19.

Located roughly 35 miles south of Louisville, Fort Knox occupies 109,000 acres across three Kentucky counties, including Bullitt, Hardin, and Mead. Originally established during World War I as an artillery training center, it was designated a permanent installation in 1932 and has since been known as Fort Knox. The first shipment of gold arrived at Fort Knox in 1937, protected by the 1st Cavalry Regiment.

According to the U.S. Mint, the current gold reserves at the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox total 147.3 million ounces, with approximately half of the Treasury’s gold stored at this location.

The U.S. Mint states that only minimal amounts of gold have been withdrawn for purity testing during routine audits. Aside from these samples, gold hasn’t been moved to or from the depository for many years. The official book value of the gold stands at $42.22 per ounce.

As per Fort Knox’s official website, it has been years since a significant quantity of gold was removed from the base.

“The only gold that has been taken out consists of very small quantities used for testing the purity of the gold during regular audits. Other than these samples, no gold has been transferred to or from the Depository for many years,” states the website here.

The recent discussion concerning the highly secured military base coincides with the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) visiting various federal agencies to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in the pursuit of cost savings.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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