NEW: Trump Announces Move To ‘Make Sure’ Gold Is Still In Fort Knox

Fort Knox, the Holy Grail of physical assets owned by the United States, will finally be audited to determine whether its world renowned stash of gold is still there.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, President Donald Trump promised that the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency will soon enter the Kentucky reserve, also known as the United States Bullion Depository, to inspect the 147 million ounces of gold that records say are kept inside its fortified vault. The figure represents over 9 million pounds.

The suggestion that DOGE audits Fort Knox percolated naturally from conservative corners on social media where influencers suggested Trump and Elon Musk target the facility for fraud or abuse. Musk shared a clip of Trump’s interview and teased the idea of live-streaming the audit.

“We’re going to go into Fort Knox to make sure the gold is there,” Trump said Wednesday. “We do wanna look. We hope everything’s fine with Fort Knox, but we’re gonna to go Fort Knox, the fabled Fort Knox, and we’re gonna make sure the gold is there.”

“Where would the gold have gone?” a reporter asked.

Trump replied tersely, “If the gold isn’t there we’re going to be very upset.”

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The president’s comments immediately sparked online speculation about whether they already have a hunch that something is amiss at Fort Knox.

“Trump and Elon would not be bringing this much attention to this situation unless they already knew something,” one user commented. Another complained about the United States’ transition away from gold as its standard of currency for domestic transactions in 1933.

“Fort Knox must be audited – and tracked going forward (with tech like blockchain) so that we don’t ever fall for this again,” they wrote.

The vast majority of DOGE’s investigatory work has been conducted behind the scenes, though occasionally Musk and President Trump will pull back the veil as they did last week while speaking about the government’s retirement system. Together in the Oval Office, they described and later released pictures of a Pennsylvania limestone mine built in 1955 where physical retirement records on millions of government workers are kept.

Public fascination with Fort Knox has endured over the years. The facility was featured in the Oscar-winning 1991 film “Silence of the Lambs” where the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit was fictionally based. Sean Connery’s 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger” featured a villain who attempted to steal all of the gold from Fort Knox.

Even the phrase “as safe as Fort Knox” has persisted in the public’s lexicon for decades. According to skeptics, the only way for its gold to disappear is from an inside job by government officials looking to pad their pockets or pay their bills. Former Sen. Bob Menendez, who was recently sentenced to prison for public corruption, was found to have stashed gold bars around his house during a raid by authorities.

“Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not. That gold is owned by the American public! We want to know if it’s still there,” Musk wrote on X, sharing a similar post by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who said he had been denied access to the facility previously.