by Jim Rickards, Daily Reckoning:
Whatever happened to the Donald Trump and Elon Musk visit to Fort Knox?
You’ll recall the buzz from earlier this year. Trump and Musk loudly announced they were going to visit the U.S. bullion depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky to make sure the U.S. gold was actually there. The press was invited to tag along. Musk claimed that his DOGE team was ready to “audit” the gold bars to see that there were none missing. I had my own views on the announcement (described below) but I certainly agreed this would be the mother of all photo ops.
For the record, the U.S. Treasury holds 8,133.5 metric tonnes of gold in the U.S. reserve position. Slightly less than half of this gold is stored in Fort Knox. The remainder is mostly stored in a secure vault at West Point, New York. The exact location of that vault is classified although I happen to know where it is. A small amount is held at the Denver Mint for coinage purposes. Legally the U.S. Treasury owns the gold reserve, but I point out that the U.S. Army actually controls it since almost all of the gold is stored on two Army bases – Fort Knox and West Point.
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A Fort Knox Extravaganza
None of this nuance about storage and location deterred Trump and Musk. In the popular imagination, all of the gold is in Fort Knox. That’s where they were headed to prove once and for all that the gold was actually there. Elon Musk planned to livestream the entire visit using his Starlink satellite system. Trump vaguely threatened that if any gold were missing, there would be disastrous consequences for any wrongdoers who removed it. The plot was set. The drama seemed irresistible.
As an aside, I was hoping that Trump and Musk were each reasonably fit and had been lifting some free weights. Gold is heavy! In fact, it’s one of the most dense materials in the periodic table of the elements, leaving aside radioactive elements like uranium and some of the trace elements that only exist in minute atomic-level quantities. A standard 400-Troy Ounce bar weighs 27.4 pounds in the English system. I’ve lifted a few during my visits to secure gold vaults. I always smile for the camera, but inside it takes a lot of strength to keep the gold bar in the air. I was concerned that Trump or Musk might strain their backs putting on a show for the press.
Trump mentioned the proposed visit to Fort Knox in a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. He mentioned it to reporters aboard Air Force One. He mentioned his plan again in remarks before the National Governors Association Conference and at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) annual meeting.
Then suddenly the whole story went away. Trump never mentioned it again after February 26. Musk went radio silent on the topic after April 6. There was no visit to Fort Knox. There was no announcement about why there would be no visit. It was as if the whole story never happened. It just went away.
Now, Elon Musk is leaving his position as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). That was always in the cards. Musk’s appointment was as a temporary government employee; he was always going to leave about now. But why not put on a memorable gold show during his time in office? It simply never happened.
The Question Is, Why?
Let’s answer that beginning with the obvious point that the gold is all there. There have been rumors of missing and stolen gold almost from the day the bullion depository was built. Some suggested that European bankers stole the gold in the 1930s. Others said the Rockefeller clan looted the gold. The 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger is built around a plot to steal the gold.
This speculation makes for good rumor-mongering but, in fact, the gold is all present and accounted for. The last public audit was conducted in 1974, but annual audits are done by the U.S. Treasury (although the results are not made public). Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said, “I can tell the American people … all the gold is there.”
If the gold is there (and it is), then why not go ahead with the visit? It would be great PR in any event and would reassure a skeptical American public.
A Money Monopoly
There are two reasons why the visit did not proceed and why you won’t hear more about it. The first one is that the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve (Fed) do not want to call attention to gold’s role as a monetary asset. The Fed (along with commercial banks) has a monopoly on the money printing press. The government has done everything possible to diminish and deny the role of gold as money, beginning with FDR’s confiscation of gold from U.S. citizens in 1933 and continuing through Nixon’s closing of the gold window for foreign trading partners in 1971. At this point, we have three generations of students since 1971 who know almost nothing about gold.
Gold is not taught in economics classes. Gold is not discussed in economic or Fed policy circles. Younger students don’t even know that the U.S. was ever on a gold standard or that gold once circulated freely as a form of money (usually in ¼-ounce or 8-gram coins). The government has eradicated any memory of gold as money. Why bring it back to life with a high-profile visit to Fort Knox? Better just to ignore gold if you want to maintain your money monopoly.
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