Why does the government store gold at Fort Knox?

Fort Knox has long been home to the U.S. government's gold reserves. It has also suddenly become an object of keen interest to President Donald Trump.

Trump has said he wants to visit the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox "to see if the gold is there," said The Louisville Courier Journal. There have been "unsubstantiated claims" — amplified by Trump and Elon Musk — suggesting some of the gold could be missing. "We're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there. Because maybe somebody stole the gold," Trump said to reporters. That seems highly unlikely. Fort Knox has "stringent security protocols" to safeguard the reserve, said the Courier Journal. Officials at the base "know to the nanogram what you weigh going in and what you weigh going out," said former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin, who visited in 2017.

Why does America store gold at Fort Knox?

"Just in case we need it," former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan once reportedly said. Gold is "the ultimate in money," former Congressman Ron Paul said to CBS News in 2010. The gold vaults at Fort Knox were built in 1937, and the gold shipped in "on a special nine-car train manned by machine gunners," said CBS.

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Since then, the precious metal has been "pretty much off limits" to the public and most officials. America once linked the value of the dollar to its gold holdings, but that ended in 1971. The gold at Fort Knox is now "an asset on the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, not a key part of our monetary system."

How much gold is stored there?

There are currently 147.3 million ounces of gold held at Fort Knox, which is "about half of the Treasury's stored gold," said the United States Mint. The statutory price of those holdings is $42.22 per ounce — far below the market price of gold, which is nearing $2,300 per ounce. That "means the Fort Knox gold has a market value of $436 billion," said Forbes. The holdings help make the United States government the "most prolific government steward of gold," with Germany coming in second. It is a "pile of gold that would make Scrooge McDuck envious," said Barron's.

Has gold been taken from Fort Knox?

Again, that remains highly unlikely. No single person knows all the procedures necessary to open the vaults. But small amounts of gold have been removed from the vaults "to test the purity during the regularly scheduled audits," said NewsNation. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary during the first Trump administration, cast doubt on the notion that gold had disappeared from the fort. "The gold was there when I visited it, and I hope nobody's moved it," Mnuchin said. "I'm sure they haven't."

What's behind the conspiracy theories?

Rumors of missing gold at Fort Knox are a "well-worn Boomer Facebook conspiracy theory," said Gizmodo. There have only been a few public visits by civilian personnel to the gold reserves over the last 90 years — and indeed one of those, by journalists and members of Congress in 1974, came "after persistent rumors that the gold had been removed," said The Associated Press. No malfeasance was found.