Trump Still Wants to Verify U.S. Gold Reserves at Ft. Knox

President Donald Trump says he still wants to personally inspect Fort Knox to verify that America’s massive gold reserves are physically present inside the legendary military facility — reviving a long-running topic that has fueled speculation and skepticism for decades.

Speaking during an interview on Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson that aired Sunday, Trump joked about visiting the highly secure bullion depository and checking the nation’s gold supply himself.

“We wanted to go and knock on the door of Fort Knox — a very thick door — and to see whether or not we have any gold in there,” Trump said.

The president’s remarks come after renewed public discussion surrounding the security and auditing of America’s gold reserves, particularly following comments last year from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Musk had responded online to suggestions that the government should conduct a public inspection of Fort Knox to reassure Americans that the nation’s gold remains safely stored inside the heavily guarded facility.

Fort Knox reportedly houses roughly half of the federal government’s total gold reserves.

“It’s a very interesting question. We played with that. I wonder if they left the gold in Fort Knox, because they steal a lot,” Trump told journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

“I do want to go to Fort Knox sometime. I want to see if the gold is there, which I’m sure it will be,” the president added.

The facility’s gold reserves are now estimated to be worth nearly $700 billion based on current market prices.

According to reports, Fort Knox contains approximately 147.3 million ounces of gold — more than 9 million pounds — secured behind some of the most sophisticated physical protections in the world.

Official government accounting still values the gold at a decades-old statutory price of just $42.22 per ounce, placing the book value near $6.2 billion. But with gold prices now hovering near $4,700 per ounce, the real market value is dramatically higher.

Access to the vaults inside Fort Knox has remained extremely limited for decades.

In 1974, journalists and members of Congress were granted a rare tour after public speculation spread that the government’s gold reserves may have been secretly removed.

More recently, then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin visited the facility in 2017 for an inspection of the bullion reserves.

Technically, the world’s largest gold repository sits beneath the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, though that vault also stores gold belonging to numerous foreign governments.

Fort Knox’s historic importance declined significantly after the United States abandoned the gold standard in 1971, ending the direct link between gold reserves and the U.S. dollar.

Before then, the federal government maintained massive gold stockpiles to support the dollar’s convertibility and financial stability.

Today, the gold functions primarily as a reserve asset held by the federal government rather than backing circulating currency.

Trump’s interest in personally inspecting government properties has become a recurring theme during his second term.

Last week, the president personally traveled to oversee renovation work near the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where he reportedly instructed workers to apply an “American flag blue” coating to parts of the monument area.

Trump has also repeatedly teased the possibility of visiting Fort Knox publicly over the past year.

“We’re gonna go into Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there,” Trump said during remarks last July.

He raised the issue again in February while speaking with reporters.

“You know that? We’re gonna go into Fort Knox. Do you know about that?” Trump said.

“One of the things we do want to look — I mean, we hope everything’s fine with Fort Knox, but we’re gonna go to Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, to make sure the gold is there,” he added.

When a reporter asked where the gold could possibly have gone, Trump responded jokingly: “If the gold isn’t there, we’re gonna be very upset.”

Beyond housing America’s gold reserves, Fort Knox also serves as a major military installation and hosts the U.S. Army Human Resources Command as well as one of the Army’s largest annual training operations.

Still, for many Americans, Fort Knox remains less a military base and more a symbol of financial security, government secrecy, and the enduring mystery surrounding one of the largest gold stockpiles on Earth.