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OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:48 PM – Monday, February 17, 2025
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk has been urged by GOP politicians to shift his attention toward the United States Bullion Depository, also known as Fort Knox — one of the most secure locations on earth.
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In response to the tech mogul’s thoughts regarding the cache, GOP Kentucky Senator Rand Paul demanded an examination of the vault’s enormous gold holdings, which are valued at an estimated $425 billion, based on current market rates.
An online user asked Musk to “take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of US gold is there,” prompting Musk to respond to the request.
“Surely it’s reviewed at least every year,” Musk responded to X user Zerohedge.
“Nope. Let’s do it,” Paul (R-Ky.) responded, chiming in, referring to the Army installation in Kentucky.
Former Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), the father of the Kentucky senator, previously pushed for more openness in regard to the nation’s reserves.
Since the vaults were completely off-limits for decades, it’s unclear when the facility last had a thorough audit.
In response to previous allegations of thievery, a congressional delegation and members of the press were granted access to the complex for the first time in 1974. In 2017, during the first Trump administration, former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was given access to the vaults once more.
Meanwhile, a number of theories pertaining to the U.S. government secretly auctioning off the gold, rather than storing it inside Fort Knox, have been plaguing the site since at least the 1970s. The recent news of Musk’s interest in auditing Fort Knox has even prompted social media users to post humorous videos and other claims referencing these theories.
Additionally, Paul’s attempt to gain access in 2010 included legislation meant to pave the way for Fort Knox to be audited. The elder Paul had expressed similar verbiage to what his son is now carrying on.
“My attitude is, let’s just find out what’s there,” Paul stated at the time.
Nevertheless, the gold was still there when former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin visited in 2017 with Rep. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) — they both told the press at the time.
Since the U.S. abandoned the gold standard in 1971, the vault’s significance has diminished somewhat. Prior to that, all U.S. currency was backed by gold reserves that were secured in locations like Fort Knox for roughly a century.
However, its Fort Knox holdings are just another asset owned by the Federal Reserve since the U.S. abandoned the gold standard.
When the fictitious criminal mastermind Auric Goldfinger tried to break in, but was stopped by “James Bond” in the famous 1964 movie “Goldfinger,” Fort Knox’s grip on the public’s imagination was cemented.
According to the U.S. Mint, the actual vault contains at least 9.2 million pounds of gold. That amounts to roughly half of the gold reserves held by the Treasury.
Although it also contains gold from other nations, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building in Lower Manhattan is technically the largest gold vault in the world.
The government also claims that the gold in Fort Knox has a book value of $42.22 per ounce, or roughly $6.2 billion. However, it is almost a laughable undervaluation, as the stockpile is worth hundreds of billions of dollars since gold is now priced at around $2,900 per troy ounce — after surging in value over the past year, The Post reported.
In 1937, gold started to arrive at Fort Knox. On its website, the Army station in Kentucky states that in late 1941, 649.6 million ounces of gold was the most gold ever stored there.
Fort Knox has strong defenses. The structure and composition of the precious metal bullion are “known by only a few,” according to the U.S. government, and “no one person knows all the procedures to open the vault.”
The bullion vault at the Kentucky-based facility, which holds precious items for the U.S. government in addition to gold, is closed to visitors and has hardly ever been exposed to the public.
As the head of DOGE, Musk has been occupied with auditing government spending, with help from his team — who stepped up to serve under President Donald Trump’s administration. According to Trump, Musk’s DOGE team started out with only roughly “12 geniuses” and has since grown to “almost 100 people.”
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