Sen. Rand Paul is inviting Elon Musk to come to his state of Kentucky to review the largest reserves of gold in the U.S.
A libertarian influencer with 2 million followers urged the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to investigate the reserves at Fort Knox to verify the existence of the U.S. gold supply.
Elon Musk questioned the lack of annual audits on the gold reserves, sparking rumors that he may consider inspecting the heavily guarded military base housing the nation’s gold.
Since assuming office, President Donald Trump has empowered Musk in Washington, resulting in the billionaire and the President targeting various agencies for budget cuts to eliminate what they perceive as unnecessary government spending.
He helped completely dismantle USAID – either firing or putting more than 10,000 employees in limbo – and has cut billions in funding in agencies like the Department of Education and fired four of the top financial officials at FEMA.
‘It would be great if Elon Musk could take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of US gold is there,’ the libertarian Zero Hedge news aggregator account posted to X. ‘Last time anyone looked was 50 years ago in 1974.’
Musk responded to the post with: ‘Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?’
But Republican Sen. Paul of Kentucky said ‘nope’ and invited Musk to ‘do it’ and have his DOGE staffers conduct an audit of the reserves located in the Fort Knox Army base.
The United States Bullion Depository stands on Fort Knox on Thursday, February 27, 2014 in Fort Knox, Ky. Built in 1936, the depository holds gold bullion reserves belonging to the U.S. Treasury Department
Members of Congress and the media went into the vaults on September 23, 1974 in a tour led by the Director of the United States Mint at the time Mary Brooks (pictured) after a conspiracy was spreading that Fort Knox gold reserves were empty
The Bullion Depository holds roughly 147 million troy ounces of bulk gold, which represents over half the gold held by the U.S. federal government or 56.35 percent of the total.
The U.S. Mint Police are responsible for protecting the gold reserve.
Gold reserves in the U.S., just like all gold reserves, act as a financial safety net against economic instability.
It stores actual, tangible value and helps hedge against inflation with the intention of maintaining public confidence in the nation’s currency despite the gold standard no longer being the way the economy operates.
While the X post suggests the last inspection of the gold coffers was conducted in 1974, there was also one in August 2017 when Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell brought a small group, including then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to the vault.
A few very grainy black and white images of Mnuchin in the vault were released after the visit in front of what the public is told are golden bars.
Mnuchin was the first head of the Treasury to visit the depository since 1948.
The first inspection of the vault was in 1943 by President Franklin Roosevelt in the aftermath of the Great Depression and in the throes of World War II.
The head of DOGE questioned why the gold vaults are not reviewed every year
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The aforementioned 1974 inspection came in response to a circulating conspiracy theory at the time that claimed elites had secretly removed the gold and the vaults were actually empty.
Members of Congress and the media attended the tour led by the U.S. Mint Director at the time to prove to the public the gold was still there.
Musk and his DOGE team have been on a rampage the past month in efforts to make cuts to federal spending and better spend federal government funds from taxpayers.
This includes ending DEI programs and putting an end to funding for those initiatives in federal departments.
Additionally, government contracts with private firms were canceled that had to do anything with so-called diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
There is speculation that DOGE could cut other agencies after the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was completely shuttered earlier this month.
