Politics
Trump Has Raised Questions About Fort Knox. His Allies Are Trying to Cash In.
It is one of the more baffling story lines of Donald J. Trump’s second term. The president has said he wants to personally visit Fort Knox to ensure that no one has stolen the government-owned gold bars that are stored there.
Mr. Trump has not explained why any gold might be missing from the nation’s heavily guarded reserves. 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.
Mr. Trump’s interest in the gold reserves has been largely overshadowed by his family’s involvement in various cryptocurrency ventures, which has raised ethical concerns about potential conflicts of interest.
The president has a long history of embracing conspiracy theories, and is known to be a fan of golden and gilded things. It is difficult to say what exactly is behind his recent fanning of unfounded fears about Fort Knox, which have been floating around since at least the 1970s.
A White House spokesperson did not respond when asked to comment for this story.
What is certain is that gold is on many investors’ minds these days. 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.
And some of them have been using fresh concerns about Fort Knox to make a profit.
The Gold Conspiracy That Wouldn’t Go Away
If nothing else, Mr. Trump’s Fort Knox obsession has resurfaced one of the deeper cuts in the American conspiracy theory catalog.
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. 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.
One of the main early proponents of the idea that gold was missing from Fort Knox was a lawyer named Peter Beter, who earned a modicum of notoriety in the 1970s by spreading dark theories in a mail-order audio cassette series. Among other things, Mr. Beter believed that “organic robotoids,” controlled by Bolsheviks, had infiltrated the federal government.
By 1974, concerns about the gold reserves grew so intense that a congressional delegation and a few news outlets, including The New York Times, were invited to Fort Knox for a rare inspection. A reporter for The Times described the effect of seeing a vault 6 feet wide and 12 feet deep, stacked with 36,236 glistening gold bars, as “awesome.”
Another wave of concern crested in 2011, when then-Representative Ron Paul, the Texas Republican, introduced a bill calling for an inventory of the reserves. At a subcommittee hearing, Mr. Paul said people had become worried that “the gold had been secretly shipped out of Fort Knox and sold.” He added, “And, still others believe that the bars at Fort Knox are actually gold-plated tungsten.”
U.S. House of Representatives
The inspector general of the Treasury Department at the time, Eric Thorson, told Mr. Paul that audits were performed yearly, with “no exceptions of any consequence.”
U.S. House of Representatives
More recently, Mr. Trump’s first-term Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, had a chance to check on the gold in August 2017, with Mitch McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, in tow. Photos were taken of the men among the gold bars.
“Glad gold is safe!” Mr. Mnuchin wrote on Twitter, now known as X.
Questions About Ft. Knox Bubble Up Again
The latest concerns appear to have taken off on Feb. 14, when the website ZeroHedge, which occasionally promotes conspiracy theories, tagged Elon Musk in a post on X. The post asked him to make sure the gold at Fort Knox is there.
“Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?” Mr. Musk replied.
“It should be. It isn’t,” ZeroHedge responded. (Mr. Bessent, the Treasury secretary, would later say that the gold is still audited annually.)
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican and the son of Ron Paul, chimed in, calling for an audit. “Let’s do it.”
The next day, Alex Jones, the “InfoWars” conspiracy theorist, said on his talk show that when he was a child, his great-uncle told him some of the gold was missing, and that the “deep state” was involved in the “crime of the century.”
Mr. Musk responded to this post as well. “It would be cool to do a live video walkthrough of Fort Knox!” he wrote.
Then came Glenn Beck, the conservative radio and TV host, who posted an open letter to Mr. Trump the next day, asking if he could take a camera crew to Fort Knox to “restore faith in our financial system.”
The chatter about the gold reserves was growing louder.
By Feb. 20, Mr. Trump was telling a press gaggle on Air Force One that he planned to go to Fort Knox to “make sure the gold is there.”
How the Conspiracy Theory Has Been Integrated Into Sales Pitches for… Gold
Since then, the idea that the government’s gold reserves may have gone missing has been integrated into the sales pitches of companies that trade in gold coins and gold investment accounts. The companies advertise heavily on Trump-friendly TV and internet shows.
InfoWars, The Dan Bongino Show, The Ben Shapiro Show, Triggered with Don Jr.
A number of “gold I.R.A.” companies have suggested that a future audit of Fort Knox could determine that gold is missing, setting off a crisis among Americans about the stability of the economy. Amid such chaos, the companies argue, privately held gold would be a lucrative safe haven for investors.
One of the companies, Birch Gold Group, is endorsed by the president’s eldest son and bills itself as “Donald Trump Jr’s gold company.” A recent article on Birch Gold’s website stated that the idea of an “empty Fort Knox” had gone “from conspiracy theory to mainstream concern.” A discovery that gold was missing from Fort Knox, the article stated, would be the “quickest way down for the U.S. dollar.”
“It is only those without physical gold exposure that feel the need to panic, perhaps with good reason, about the greenback’s admittedly dismal prospects,” states the article, which is accompanied by an offer for a “FREE gold IRA info kit.”
The younger Mr. Trump lauded his father’s plans to visit Fort Knox in a Feb. 24 episode of his online talk show, on which he regularly makes pitches for Birch Gold. “If it’s empty,” he said, “I would imagine there’s hell to pay.”
On Feb. 27, Lear Capital, a gold company that Mr. Beck promotes, posted, “As calls for a Fort Knox audit grow louder, investors should stay informed and consider their exposure to gold as part of a diversified portfolio.”
On Instagram, Rogan O’Handley, a conservative influencer who goes by the handle DC Draino, posted a plug for Donald Trump Jr.’s preferred gold company.
“If Fort Knox is empty, do you know what Gold prices will do?,” Mr. O’Handley wrote. “Get a **Free** info packet from Birch Gold – LINK IN MY BIO – to learn more about @birchgold’s tax-advantaged precious metals retirement plans.”
On another section of Birch Gold’s website, a “Message from Donald Trump Jr.” raised the possibility that his father’s administration could “revalue America’s gold reserves on the national balance sheet from their outdated book value of $42” — the price per ounce the government assigns for bookkeeping purposes — “to current market prices.”
This, he wrote, “could cause a surge in gold prices.” He added, “The potential upside for gold investors is substantial.” A gold I.R.A., he added, would be a great way to benefit. He did not mention that Mr. Bessent had publicly stated that he had no plans to revalue the gold reserves.
Above the message was a digitally altered photo of the president at a desk, showing off an important-looking signed document, a wall of gold bricks behind him.
Mr. Trump has still not visited Fort Knox.
new video loaded: Trump Threatens to Resume Nuclear Testing
transcript
transcript
Trump Threatens to Resume Nuclear Testing
On Wednesday, President Trump threatened to resume testing nuclear weapons again after more than 30 years, claiming that other countries had nuclear testing programs. The president suggested that Russia and China’s nuclear programs could match that of the United States in the next few years.
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“It had to do with others. They seem to all be nuclear testing.” Reporter: “Russia?” “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing. We’ve halted it years — many years ago. But with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we do also.”
By Meg Felling
October 30, 2025
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NBCUniversal owner Comcast is indeed interested in some of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets.
On a Thursday call with analysts to discuss third-quarter earnings, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh suggested the Philadelphia giant might bid for certain Warner assets, primarily the Warner Bros. film and television studios and its streaming service HBO Max.
Sources had previously said Comcast was angling to join the Warner Bros. Discovery auction after that company’s board formally opened the process last week. The Warner board has unanimously rejected three unsolicited bids from David Ellison’s Paramount, which has offered $58 billion in cash and stock for all of Warner Bros. Discovery.
“This could be Comcast’s last shot at transforming NBCUniversal into a long-term structural winner in media,” LightShed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield wrote in a note to investors. “If Paramount or another buyer acquires Warner Bros., there would be no obvious merger partner for NBCU.”
Comcast isn’t looking to acquire the entire company or Warner’s large portfolio of cable channels that include CNN, TBS and Food Network. Instead, Cavanagh suggested that Comcast’s interest would be more narrow.
He noted that NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. have compatible businesses. Comcast wants to grow its studios and its struggling streaming service, Peacock, which lost $217 million.
“You should expect us to look at things that are trading in our space … It’s our job to try to figure out if there are ways to add value,” Cavanagh told analysts.
But he added a note of caution, saying the company didn’t feel that a merger was “necessary.”
“The bar is very high for us to pursue any [merger] transactions,” he said.
Longtime cable analyst Craig Moffett interpreted Cavanagh’s oblique remarks as downplaying a potential bid by Comcast for its competitor. Moffett noted Comcast’s stock performance has long been restrained because of chairman and controlling shareholder Brian Roberts’ penchant for deal-making.
“The markets haven’t liked those deals,” Moffett wrote in a Thursday note to investors.
A decade ago, Comcast abandoned a $45-billion deal to buy Time Warner Cable amid opposition from federal regulators. Its retreat allowed Charter Communications to instead acquire the cable company. And in 2018, Comcast leaped into a bidding war with Walt Disney Co. over much of Rupert Murdoch’s Fox.
Comcast ultimately claimed the European satellite TV service Sky from Murdoch at an inflated sum of $39 billion.
A NBCUniversal-Warner Bros. Discovery union makes sense, Moffett wrote, adding it could be “a match, at least on paper, made in heaven.”
“Combining HBO Max (or whatever it’s called now) and Peacock would help both [services], saving costs and adding needed scale,” Moffett wrote. Warner Bros. has strong franchises, including Superman, Batman and Harry Potter, which “could be invaluable for Universal’s theme parks.”
The Warner auction comes amid deep turmoil in the industry. Traditional entertainment companies, including Warner and NBCUniversal, have long relied heavily on cable programming fees to boost profit, but consumers have been scaling back on pay-TV subscriptions amid the move to streaming.
To address that challenge, Comcast is spinning off its cable channels, including CNBC, MSNBC, USA and Golf Channel, into a separately traded company called Versant. That process is expected to be complete this year.
As part of the transition, the liberal-leaning MSNBC is changing its name to MS Now and dropping the peacock from its network logo, reflecting its pending exit from NBC, which will remain part of Comcast.
Cavanagh suggested that Comcast would not double down in a declining cable channel business that it was already exiting.
But Warner has other compelling properties, including HBO and its Warner Bros. film and television studio. The Warner Bros. studio has released a string of movie blockbusters this year, including “Superman,” “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie.” And there is also the legendary movie studio lot in Burbank, where NBC shows such as “Friends” were shot, which is next to the NBCUniversal lot, Universal Studios and its CityWalk plaza.
Warner and NBCUniversal are investing in their respective streaming services, but both lag Netflix, YouTube and Walt Disney Co. in terms of subscribers and engagement. Peacock has 41 million subscribers; the service has lost billions of dollars since Comcast launched it five years ago.
To shore up Peacock and the NBC broadcast network, Comcast has invested heavily on sports, including striking a $27-billion, 10-year deal for NBA basketball, a contract that kicked in this month with the new season. (Nielsen ratings for the inaugural NBA game on NBC last week were strong — nearly 5 million viewers.)
Most analysts believe that Ellison’s Paramount is in the best position to win Warner Bros. Discovery.
They point to the Ellison family’s determination, wealth and political connections. Tech titan Larry Ellison, who is backing his son’s bid, is the second-richest man in the world behind Elon Musk, and President Trump views the elder Ellison as a good friend.
In contrast, Trump has displayed a dim view of Comcast Chairman and Chief Executive Brian Roberts, in large part, because of Comcast’s ownership of MSNBC, which Trump has accused of being an arm of the Democratic National Committee.
The tension has led observers to conclude that Comcast would face a stormy regulatory review process with Trump overseeing the Department of Justice, which would likely perform an anti-trust review.
Comcast has contributed to President Trump’s White House ballroom project.
(Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Comcast was among the corporate sponsors that donated to the Trump ballroom project, which will replace the now-demolished East Wing. A Comcast spokeswoman declined to say how much Comcast has contributed.
Concerns about Comcast’s ability to get deals through the Trump administration may be overblown, Cavanagh said.
“I think more things are viable than maybe some of the public commentary [suggests],” Cavanagh said.
Comcast reported third-quarter profit of $3.33 billion, up 8% from a year ago. Revenue declined 3% to $31.2 billion during the period as the company reported continued
losses in broadband customers.
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