Jeff Mordock | May 26, 2025
(The Washington Times) — The Trump brand has long been associated with gold, but the president suddenly lost interest in the famous U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
After a roughly two-week span in February in which President Trump talked repeatedly about traveling to Fort Knox to ensure the nation’s gold is safely stockpiled there, he appears to have abandoned the idea.
Mr. Trump has no plans to visit Fort Knox, The Washington Times has learned.
The decision marks a reversal for Mr. Trump, who, along with his government cost-cutting adviser Elon Musk, raised the issue more than a dozen times in late February, according to a count by The Times.
The White House declined to participate in this report.
Earlier this year, Mr. Trump was preoccupied with the debunked conspiracy theory that someone might have stolen the gold out of Fort Knox and teased plans to personally inspect the fortress.
He mentioned the idea during a White House meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, with reporters aboard Air Force One, then again in the Oval Office. Mr. Trump also mentioned the idea in separate remarks at the Governors Association and the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“We’re going to Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there. If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset,” the president told reporters on Air Force One.
Mr. Trump has not broached the idea since Feb. 25.
Mr. Musk hasn’t brought up the idea since an April 6 interview on Fox Business Network where he talked about livestreaming the Fort Knox inspection.
The change of heart has convinced some Washington veterans that Mr. Trump already knows the answer.
“If Trump really believed that the gold was gone, he’d be down there in a second,” said Eric Thorson, a retired Treasury Department inspector general and one of the few people to have personally audited the gold stash at Fort Knox. “He knows damn well it’s there so he’d look stupid coming out of there and saying, ‘Yeah, I guess I was wrong. It’s all there.’ So the best way to do this is to just drop it.”
The conspiracy theory that someone stole the gold from Fort Knox has circulated for decades despite a lack of evidence. It first popped up on the Trump administration’s radar after the conservative financial website Zero Hedge raised the issue on X and tagged Mr. Musk.
Gold theft rumors have existed as long as Fort Knox, which was built in 1936. At first, gossip held that European bankers ran off the gold, then it was updated to accuse the Rockefeller family of pilfering it. A scheme to blow up the gold in Fort Knox was the plot of the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger,’ but 007 saved the day.
Despite the long-running conspiracy theory, there is no evidence that any gold is missing from Fort Knox. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed back on his boss’ suggestion that gold has been stolen. He said the government conducts a private audit every year, with the most recent occurring in September 2024.
“We do an audit every year. I can tell the American people … all the gold is there,” Mr. Bessent told Bloomberg News in February.
Steve Munchin, who served as treasury secretary in Mr. Trump’s first administration, also said there was an annual audit to verify all of the gold was where it should be.
The last publicly reported audit at the Fort Knox reserve took place in September 1974 when several members of Congress assured Americans that the gold supply was intact, according to the U.S. Mint. President Ford also allowed a group of journalists to attend to verify the audit.
At the time, the Mint said the audit was necessary to reassure the public that their gold is “intact and safe.”
However, the idea of a full audit had gained traction from within Mr. Trump’s Republican Party.
In response to Mr. Musk’s call for inspecting Fort Knox’s gold, Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, said, “Let’s do it.”
Sen Mike Lee, Utah Republican, said that he has been repeatedly denied entry to the military installation, despite being allowed into military bases across the country.
More than 147.4 million ounces of gold are supposed to be stored at the Fort Knox depository, more than any other base in the country, according to data from the Mint.
All told, the U.S. owns 8,133.46 metric tons of gold, or almost 287 million ounces, according to the World Gold Council, more than any other nation in the world. That amount of gold is worth more than $950 billion.
Fort Knox remains one of the most secure locations in the country. It doesn’t offer tours, and its website makes it clear that no visitors are allowed.
Mr. Thorson said he’s been to military bases with nuclear weapons, and Fort Knox is just as secure.
“The security is unbelievable. Nobody is going to go into Fort Knox and take the gold,” he said.
