Elon Musk, the head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, signaled an interest Monday in auditing the Fort Knox United States Bullion Depository after Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Mike Lee (Utah) and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck pressed the issue.
According to the U.S. Mint, the fortified vault adjacent to the Fort Knox Army installation south of Louisville, Kentucky, presently holds 9.2 million pounds of gold, a figure that includes half of the U.S. Treasury’s gold. The New York Post indicated that the value of the reserves on-site are roughly $425 billion.
There have long been calls to undertake a comprehensive audit of Fort Knox — something that does not appear to have taken place in decades.
‘Surely, a full audit every 25 years is not too much to ask.’
Roughly 20 years after three gold compartments
were opened at the depository for an allegedly thorough audit, a committee of auditors from the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Treasury Department launched a review of the gold holdings at Fort Knox on Sept. 24, 1974.
The GAO later
recommended that the treasury secretary task the director of the mint with performing routine audits of the gold. Audits apparently took place for years thereafter on a cyclical basis, at least up until the mid-1980s.
Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)
noted during a 2011 congressional hearing, a year after introducing legislation that would have the fort audited, that “because the government has for so long refused to provide substantive information on its gold holdings, it is not surprising that so much confusion abounds, both within and without the government.”
“While the Mint and the inspector general trust the accuracy of the audits performed between 1975 and 1986, this still means that at least two-thirds of the gold reserves were last audited over a quarter-century ago,” continued Paul. “Surely, a full audit every 25 years is not too much to ask.”
Paul’s son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R), advocated over the weekend for an audit of Fort Knox after the right-leaning financial news site ZeroHedge got the ball rolling again Saturday on audit talk.
‘There should be no reason why the American people cannot see them with their own eyes.’
ZeroHedge
noted, “It would be great if @elonmusk could take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of US gold is there. Last time anyone looked was 50 years ago in 1974.”
Musk
responded, “Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?”
Sen. Paul
stated, “Nope. Let’s do it.”
Sen. Mike Lee similarly pushed for an audit, both
noting that he has repeatedly been denied access to the depository and raising the possibility that for all the public knows, the contents of the Kentucky vaults could be Pez candies.
Glenn Beck pushed the matter further, noting in letters Monday to President Donald Trump, to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and to the Treasury Department, “Though on paper, America is the world’s largest holder of gold, there has been no full, independent audit of these reserves in over 70 years. This has led to widespread speculation, conspiracy theories, and a growing distrust in our institutions.”
“At a time when Americans are more skeptical than ever of their government and financial elites, a simple yet profound act of radical transparency could be a game-changer,” continued Beck, proposing that he take a camera crew into the depository to document and verify America’s gold reserves.
“If our reserves are indeed secure, as the government claims, there should be no reason why the American people cannot see them with their own eyes,” added Beck.
After
questioning whether the American public’s gold was still there, Musk signaled support for Beck’s idea, writing, “Yeah!”
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