Located roughly 35 miles south of Louisville, Kentucky since the 1860s, Fort Knox is a U.S. Army installation that is synonymous with tight security — so tight that in pop culture, it has been famously referenced in everything from the 1964 James Bond movie "Goldfinger" to Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D's "Parkside 5-2."

The U.S. government's gold reserves, after many years, are still stored and heavily guarded at Fort Knox — which, according to New York Times reporters Richard Fausset and Leo Dominguez, President Donald Trump "wants to personally visit" in order to "ensure that" none of the gold has been stolen.

Fausset and Dominguez, in an article published on May 27, note that it is "baffling" why Trump would be worried about that gold.

READ MORE: How the 'disastrous' Supreme Court 'diminished its own power' — and is now paying the price

"Mr. Trump has not explained why any gold might be missing from the nation's heavily guarded reserves," the Times reporters explain. "His own treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has insisted that there is no reason to worry. 'All the gold is there,' Mr. Bessent emphatically told Bloomberg in February, at one point looking directly into a camera and addressing the American people."

But Trump, Fausset and Dominguez add, "has a long history of embracing conspiracy theories."

"What is certain is that gold is on many investors' minds these days," according to Fausset and Dominguez. "Generally seen as a safe place to park wealth during tumultuous periods, the precious metal has risen to record prices recently, in part because of the global economic uncertainty that the president’s shifting tariff policies caused. Some of Mr. Trump’s allies, including his eldest son, serve as pitchmen for gold investment companies that advertise heavily on their podcasts or radio shows…. One reason the government holds onto such large stores of gold is to confer a sense of financial stability, even though the country moved off the gold standard in the 20th Century."

"Infowars" host Alex Jones is among the conspiracy theorists who claims that gold is missing from Fort Knox, and on February 20, Trump told reporters he planned to visit Fort Knox to "make sure the gold is there."

READ MORE: 'That's propaganda': Parents fight back against new religious MAGA curriculum in OK schools

Fausset and Dominguez observe, "According to the United States Mint, 147.3 million ounces of gold, about half of the government’s stash, is held at Fort Knox. The Kentucky facility, known formally as the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, almost never allows visitors and is kept under famously heavy lock and key — an inaccessibility that may explain much of the intrigue around it."

READ MORE: Billionaire investor warns Trump policies 'remarkably like' 1930s 'hard-right' leaders

Read the full New York Times article at this link (subscription required).


From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web