Why do Elon Musk and Trump want to audit Fort Knox gold?
USA, March 17, 2025 – On February 17, the head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, announced his intention to personally inspect the Fort Knox vault, which houses the US gold reserves. On February 22, during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump said that he would go to Fort Knox with Musk. “Anyone want to join us? Because we want to see if the gold is still there. We’re going to look there, and if there’s 27 tons of gold there, we’ll be very happy,” Trump told the audience.
“I don’t know how we’re going to measure [it], but that’s fine. We want to see a lot of good, beautiful, shiny gold at Fort Knox.” “Wouldn’t it be terrible if we opened it up and there was no gold there?” – Trump continued.
“That’s why we’re going to open that door.” Like Musk before him, Trump also hinted that the gold may indeed be gone, declaring:
“Don’t be surprised if we open the door and say, ‘There’s nothing here, they stole this too!'” Neither Trump nor Musk gave a specific timeline for their visit to Fort Knox.
“The US gold reserves are drawing more attention than in decades as members of the Trump administration have suggested the precious metal could play a role in their economic plans amid growing speculation that the US government may adjust the valuation of its gold reserves. The US Treasury holds the world’s largest gold reserves – 8,100 tonnes – but the value of that gold has not changed since 1972, when it was pegged at $42 an ounce. Some analysts say that if the government were to revalue its gold reserves at current prices, which are more than $2,900 an ounce, it could net the Treasury more than $760 billion,” writes Kitco News, the world’s leading precious metals portal.
Speculation surrounding the US government’s gold reserves began to intensify earlier this month after newly appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was “monetizing the asset side of the US balance sheet.”
“We are going to monetize the asset side of the American balance sheet for the American people,” Bessent said. – “It will be a combination of liquid assets, assets that we have in this country, as we work to get them out to the American people. But before the gold reserve can be revalued, there needs to be an audit of Fort Knox and an assessment of what is actually there, which is an extremely difficult task. How much gold are we talking about? The total amount of gold in Fort Knox: 368,000 gold bars, each weighing 400 troy ounces (27.5 pounds). If you spread them out, they would cover an entire football field in one layer. Total weight: more than 4,500 tons. Total value: about $430 billion based on recent spot prices – more than the combined market capitalization of Boeing, General Motors and Lockheed Martin, as well as Elon Musk’s net worth.
“It’s not just a pile of gold – it’s an economic powerhouse locked behind steel and secrecy,” Zerohedge notes. How long How long can an audit take? A full audit would require each gold bar to be physically removed, weighed, checked for purity, and compared to outdated government records.
“A Fort Knox vault audit involves significant physical and logistical challenges. The gold is stored in 13 sealed compartments. Each of these compartments is 20 feet wide, 40 feet deep, and 26 feet high. The bars themselves are stacked tightly one on top of the other. Details of the exact configuration are scarce due to the security and secrecy of the facility. We have seen photos of the bars sometimes stacked to the ceiling, and sometimes in 4-5 rows. Another logistical challenge is that more than 368,000 ingots will have to be moved from the racks for registration and testing. The bars will then have to be returned to their original locations,” warns online gold retailer JM Bullion.
The entire vault occupies just under 4,000 square feet (370 m2), and while the gold compartments span 936 square feet (90 m2), the remaining 3,000 square feet (270 m2) of space spread over two floors is barely big enough for a forklift, JM Bullion notes. Therefore, “nothing short of a hand truck can help move the weight of 368,250 ingots.”
“After analyzing the unique challenges of the Fort Knox audit, we have concluded that it cannot be completed in less than 18 months,” JM Bullion concludes, noting that this timeframe is the most optimistic.
Zerohedge analysts believe that a full audit of Fort Knox will take at least four years. What happens if the audit is successful? If the audit shows that all the gold is in its place, it gives America a good chance to rebuild confidence in its financial system. Because, as we wrote, the gold in Fort Knox is still valued at an outdated price of $42 per ounce, which is a far cry from the $2,900 per ounce that gold is trading for today.
“That’s a huge difference in valuation, and if the US were to revalue its gold reserves, it could change its balance sheet overnight. For comparison, at a valuation of $42, the total US gold reserves in Fort Knox are about $11 billion, but if they were valued at today’s gold price of about $2,900, the same amount would increase to a staggering $760 billion. The revaluation could therefore restore confidence in the US financial system and strengthen the dollar,” writes Indian financial portal Finshots. But what happens if the gold reserves are missing from the vault? It could cause a financial earthquake.
“The gold bars in Fort Knox represent security. They no longer support the US dollar, but represent a safety net for the US Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world, as gold is the primary safe haven asset.” But if the gold is really not there, panic will set in. Countries that have huge foreign exchange reserves in US dollars will start selling them. This will weaken the dollar and inflation could spiral out of control. Investors will also start looking for something other than the dollar as an alternative means of saving. So why would the US want to open this Pandora’s box? If there is a shortage of gold reserves, wouldn’t an audit be suicidal?
Several financial analysts admit that the Trump team has indeed launched the so-called “Mar-a-Lago Deal.” This is a kind of new economic system that includes new tariffs, debt reduction, as well as the monetization of assets.
“We are focusing on the part about asset monetization here. Could asset monetization mean a repricing of gold? We think so. And as we have said, the revaluation of gold could play a crucial role in this change. It could bring a huge amount of assets to the US Fed’s balance sheet. And that is what the US needs right now, given that it currently has a debt of $36 trillion. On the other hand, even if the audit reveals a deficit, gold prices could rise (as panic would cause more people to buy it). And that could paradoxically still be beneficial for the US, which would benefit from the rise in the value of gold,” Finshots analysts said, adding that ‘there is a possibility that the whole Fort Knox story is a political maneuver’.
Since the US abandoned the gold standard in 1971, this means that its economy is technically independent of Fort Knox’s gold reserves. So why bother with the audit now? According to one expert theory, “this is part of a broader shift to alternative assets, particularly Bitcoin and other blockchain-based digital assets. A lack of trust in government could encourage people to turn to decentralized alternatives like Bitcoin as a hedge. And that’s what Trump seems to want. He suggests creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve, hoarding Bitcoin as a financial cushion during crises, or even to reduce the $36 trillion debt.”
The logic is simple. Bitcoin is in short supply, and the more the US buys, the scarcer it becomes. This scarcity could drive up the value of Bitcoin, allowing the US government to use it as collateral in emergencies or even to pay off debt. The US already has about 200,000 Bitcoins worth about $19 billion, most of which have been seized by law enforcement. But instead of just holding them, there is a possibility that the US government could actively buy up even more, potentially seizing 5% of all bitcoins in circulation. So if we look at the Fort Knox audit situation from this perspective, the Trump administration may have an interest in seeing confidence in the US gold reserves fall and the world start turning to bitcoin. This coincides with Trump and Musk’s growing interest in digital assets, making the Fort Knox audit look like something more than just a push for financial transparency. “It may seem like self-deception, but it could be part of a larger strategy of a monetary reset,” Indian financiers note.
Erik Simon
