DOGE invited on gold reserve audit as MAGA fears | Political News

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have been invited to “audit” the U.S.’s gold reserves amid fears from MAGA Republicans that Fort Knox is empty.

Sen. Rand Paul invited Musk to return to his state of Kentucky to review the nation’s largest reserves of gold. That got here after a libertarian X account with 2 million followers requested Musk to review Fort Knox to make sure that the U.S. nonetheless has its provide of gold.

Musk then questioned why the gold provide is not reviewed yearly, which has led to hypothesis that he may look into the army base that accommodates the fortified vault of U.S. gold.

The audit additionally comes as the billionaire, who was appointed by President Donald Trump to review varied authorities companies and goal areas he feels may do with cuts or that he and Trump imagine will put an finish to “wasteful spending” by the federal authorities.

In the previous few weeks, Musk was instrumental in serving to Trump fully dismantle USAID by recommending the firing of prime officers and inserting at the very least 10,000 staff in limbo, both firing them outright or inserting them on administrative depart.

Zero Hedge, a libertarian information aggregator, appears happy by Musk’s aggressive authorities gutting, writing on X, “It would be great if Elon Musk could take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of U.S. gold is there. Last time anyone looked was 50 years ago in 1974.”

“Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?” Musk requested in a response below that post. Paul chimed in and stated, “Nope,” then invited Musk to “do it,” asking him to ask his DOGE staffers to conduct a full, full audit of the reserves which might be situated on the well-known Army base.

Called the Bullion Depository, the vault in Fort Knox holds about 147 million troy ounces of bulk gold, representing over half the gold held by the U.S. federal authorities, or about 56.35% complete. A troy ounce is the same as practically 1.10 common ounces.

It’s the U.S. Mint Police who’re liable for defending the gold reserve, which serves as a financial security web towards financial instability. It shops, actual, tangible worth and in addition helps to hedge towards inflation, with the intention being to take care of public confidence within the nation’s currency regardless of the gold customary no longer being the baseline for financial operation.

The post on X by the libertarian media combination wasn’t completely correct, nonetheless — the final time there was an audit of the gold in Fort Knox was back in August 2017 during Trump’s first time period.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on the time introduced a small group that included then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to the vault. Some grainy black and white photos of Mnuchin within the vault have been launched after that go to in entrance of what the public was advised have been the golden bars. Mnuchin was the primary head of the Treasury to go to the vault since 1948.

The very first inspection of the vault occurred in 1943, when former President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited within the aftermath of the Great Depression as the nation discovered itself engulfed within the throes of World War II.

Then, the 1974 inspection got here after conspiracy theories circulated that claimed elites had secretly eliminated the gold from the vaults, leaving them empty.

Members of Congress and the media each attended the tour, which was led by the previous U.S. Mint Director in an effort to show to the public that the gold was, in truth, nonetheless there.