Hey, Elon, put down the chainsaw — you can go to Fort Knox.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, got the crowd roaring at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference when he wielded a portable power tool presented to him by Argentine President Javier Milei, the Associated Press reported.
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The chainsaw was engraved with Milei’s slogan, “Viva la libertad, carajo” — Spanish for “Long live liberty, damn it” — and it’s pretty much emblematic of what the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is doing on Capitol Hill.
Musk may want to leave the chainsaw home when he visits Fort Knox to see if America’s gold reserves are still there.
“We’re going to open up the doors,” President Donald Trump said in a speech to Republican governors, according to CBS News. “We’re going to inspect Fort Knox. I don’t want to open it, and the cupboards are bare.”
Old Mother Hubbard aside, Musk has been posting on his X social media platform and questioning whether there is indeed gold in that Army post in Kentucky.
Treasury Secretary: gold present and accounted for
“Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox?” the Tesla (TSLA) CEO said. “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.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said there is an annual audit and that “all the gold is present and accounted for.”
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According to the U.S. Mint, current gold holdings at the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox are 147.3 million ounces. About half of the Treasury’s stored gold is kept at Fort Knox.
The first gold arrived at Fort Knox in 1937. The 1st Cavalry Regiment was called on to guard the shipment.
In 1974, the US Mint opened the vaults to a group of journalists and a congressional delegation so they could see the gold reserves.
The Treasury secretary allowed the visit after persistent rumors that the gold had been removed.
Until then, the only person other than authorized personnel to access the vaults was President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Gold prices have been soaring to record levels recently and were trading around $2,939 per ounce at last check.
Goldman Sachs analysts boosted their year-end price target for the precious metal 7.3% to $3,100 an ounce from $2,890.
The firm said gold is a great hedge against tariff escalation, which is a major part of Trump’s agenda.
The administration has implemented 10% across-the-board tariffs on all Chinese goods and announced 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, with no exceptions.
If you’re looking for your own pot of gold, you can buy stocks in companies involved in gold production, or purchase gold funds, or a gold futures contract, or you may want to stock up the real McCoy and purchase physical gold.
But there are those individuals who are choosing to nail down their nuggets by smuggling.
And their numbers are increasing.
Billions in gold smuggled out of Africa
On Feb 21, a woman, described as a U.S.-based, non-resident Indian, and her teenaged daughter were reportedly stopped at an airport in Mumbai after officials found roughly $560,000 in gold concealed in the girl’s jacket.
Billions of dollars in gold is smuggled out of Africa each year. Most of it ends up in the United Arab Emirates, according to a study last year by Swissaid, an aid and development group based in Switzerland.
Related: Goldman Sachs issues surprising gold price target for 2025
Roughly 321 to 474 tonnes — a metric tonne is 1,000 kilograms — of artisanal gold are produced in Africa each year without being declared, which translates to a value of between $24 billion and $35 billion and between 72% and 80% of Africa’s total artisanal gold production.
Swiss officials recently busted up a multi-million-dollar gold smuggling operation in their own backyard, Swissinfo reported.
A 65-year-old Italian man was accused of smuggling and selling the precious metal in the Alpine country. Customs officials said roughly $27.9 million in royalties were diverted from the Swiss government’s coffers.
In 2022, then-President Joe Biden said that the U.S. would ban Russian gold, the country’s second most valuable export after energy, following the invasion of Ukraine.
And gold smuggling cases are surging in Japan on the back of rising prices and the return of overseas tourists following the Covid-19 pandemic, Kyodo News reported earlier this month.
In one particularly hair-raising incident, two Chinese nationals arriving from Hong Kong last September were found hiding a total of some 2.6 kilograms of powdered gold in wigs at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
Many offenders are believed to have been recruited via social media, said Toshihide Manabe, an official at Tokyo Customs, and they tend to show less hesitation at engaging in gold smuggling compared with drug trafficking as gold itself is not illegal.
People aren’t just smuggling gold the old-fashioned way by wearing the precious metal as accessories.
In some recent cases, smugglers have been hiding powdered gold in their underwear, sending it by international mail after mixing it with tea powder and using it to replace other metals used in electronic components.
Related: Veteran fund manager issues dire S&P 500 warning for 2025
