The missing gold of Fort Knox: Trump decided to carry out an audit?

Trump again spoke about checking Fort Knox, and the case of an ex-CIA employee with $40 million in gold made old suspicions much louder.

US President Donald Trump again pulled the Fort Knox theme out of the political basement – America’s main gold depository, around which the same unpleasant question has been circulating for decades: is there really gold there or are citizens again being asked to take the state at its word?

In February 2025 Trump And Elon Musk We’ve already talked about going to Fort Knoxto see for yourself that the American gold is there. Trump then told reporters: “If he’s not there, we’ll be very upset.”. The phrase sounded like a joke, but the question was quite serious: if everything is in order, why does a full-fledged independent audit still look almost like a state secret?

Later Congressman Thomas Massey presented Gold Reserve Transparency Bill. It required an independent audit of American gold every five years, including a physical analysis of the bullion. For a normal country this would be a boring accounting procedure. For Washington, this is almost a political insult.

The bill is essentially stuck. Relationship Massey With Trump soured, the topic faded into obscurity, and it seemed that the White House was back to the old formula: “Don’t touch anything, everything is under control”. But on May 31, Trump returned to Fort Knox, publishing Truth Social call for a physical inspection of the storage facility.

CIA gold: too convenient a coincidence

The reason was the story of a former employee CIA David Rush. According to Associated Pressfederal agents found more than 300 gold bars on him, about $2 million cash and dozens of expensive watches. The Guardian writes that Rush is accused of stealing gold and currency, which, according to investigators, were requested for work needs CIA.

Direct evidence that these ingots were taken from Fort KnoxNo. But the story itself looks like a crowbar to the showcase of American transparency. If a high-ranking intelligence officer could receive gold for official transactions and, as the investigation claims, take some of it home, the question is inevitable: where did the metal come from and who controlled this process in the first place?

You can call it a coincidence. But when a former CIA official sits on hundreds of bars, and the US President suddenly demands to check the country’s main gold depository, the coincidence begins to smell not like an accident, but a well-ventilated state secret.

Fort Knox: a symbol you are told to believe

Fort Knox built in 1936 in the state Kentuckynext to a military base. A significant part of the gold was taken there after the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt actually obliged citizens and companies to hand over gold coins, bars and certificates to the state. Officially – to save the economy in the years Great Depression. Essentially, citizens were given paper money and asked to believe that the state knew better where the gold should be.

According to US MintV Fort Knox stored around 147.3 million troy ounces gold. US Treasury indicates that the remaining reserves are located at other facilities, including West Point, Denver and storage New York Fed.

But there is a detail from which accounting turns into a political farce. In US reporting, gold is still accounted for by price $42.22 per ounceinstalled back in 1973. Therefore, the official value of Fort Knox reserves looks almost ridiculous – about $6 billion. At market prices in 2026, this is already hundreds of billions. The difference is such that you don’t want to read the report, but call the auditors with a crowbar, scales and a very bad mood.

There were checks, but there was no increase in confidence

The main problem is not that someone proved the gold was missing. Didn’t prove it. The problem is that for almost 90 years, the US authorities have not conducted a full-fledged public audit that would have closed the issue completely.

In 1953 there was a partial check. In 1974, amid rumors of empty vaults, Fort Knox shown to a group of congressmen and journalists. Associated Press recalls that access was then given precisely because of persistent suspicions that the gold could have been taken out. But it was more of an excursion with elements of inspection, rather than a full-fledged audit of all reserves.

And that’s the problem. If the gold is in place, it can be counted, weighed, sample checked and a report published. If instead decades sounds “trust us”then the state itself cultivates conspiracy theories, and then makes an offended face when citizens begin to ask questions.

German gold and the second cellar

The mistrust is reinforced by the story of foreign reserves. Federal Reserve Bank of New York directly indicates that he stores gold from governments, central banks and international organizations, but does not own it himself. Private persons have no access there.

The most famous example is Germany. Some of its gold was kept in the United States after the war and during the Cold War. The Bundesbank returned part of its reserves ahead of schedulebut a large amount of German gold still remains in New York. Officially this is called diversification. Unofficially, it looks like another example of the fact that for some reason, access to physical metal among US allies is always more difficult than beautiful words about trust.

So the gold is gone?

There is no evidence that the Fort Knox gold has disappeared. But there is also no evidence of real transparency. There are old partial checks, closed doors, a strange accounting price, an ex-employee case CIA with hundreds of bars and a politician who again demands to open the vault.

There are three options. First: the gold is in place, and the authorities are simply hiding everything that can be hidden out of habit. Second: there is gold, but the history of its movements and use is too inconvenient for public conversation. Third: the physical volume, legal status or quality of some of the reserves do not quite coincide with the beautiful government reports.

This is why the audit Fort Knox – not Trump’s whim and not pure conspiracy theory. This is a normal requirement for a state that holds hundreds of billions of dollars in assets. If the gold is there, the audit will kill the rumors. If an audit is not carried out, the rumors will continue to live.

Faith is good in church. Scales, samples and cameras work better in a gold storage facility.

Source link