Elon Musk has identified the latest target of his Department of Government Efficiency: the U.S. gold reserves at Fort Knox.
The cost-cutter-in-chief signaled his intent Monday to walk through the heavily guarded military base housing over 147 million fine troy ounces of gold—worth $6.2 billion—after he was egged on by Republican senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee.
Musk appeared to arrive at the idea over the weekend when an X user said he should “make sure” the gold was still at Fort Knox, which was last audited in 1974. Then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin visited the Kentucky-based facility in 2017 during the first Trump administration.
“Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?” Musk said in response to the user, prompting Paul to chime in: “Nope. Let’s do it.”
Lee also joined the conversation with a claim that he had repeatedly tried to get into Fort Knox but was told he couldn’t “because you can’t.”
“Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox?” Musk said in reply. “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.”
In a series of X posts, the billionaire continued to suggest without proof that the gold reserves had disappeared.
“I sure hope it’s still there!” Musk wrote after using a popular meme from the animated comedy South Park to imply that the gold was “gone.”
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was quick to jump in, reporting through his website Infowars that DOGE goons would probe the depository’s “missing gold.”
“It would be cool to do a live video walkthrough of Fort Knox,” Musk told Jones.
Fort Knox is the latest target to catch Musk’s eye. The DOGE task force has been at the forefront of the Trump administration’s bid to reshape the federal government, which has included a purge of government employees and a takeover of sensitive systems.
“I think some of them may not think it needs to be audited all the time, but I think the more sunlight, the better, more transparency, the better,” Paul told Fox News on Monday. “And also, it brings attention to the fact that gold still has value and implicitly, not explicitly, but implicitly, gold still gives value to the dollar.”
