President Donald Trump has ordered an immediate gold inspection at Fort Knox, raising doubts over whether the 4,580 tons of gold stored in America’s most restricted vault still exist. Speaking aboard Air Force One on his way back from Miami to Washington, Trump told reporters: “We hope everything’s fine with Fort Knox, but we’re going to go to Fort Knox—the favorite Fort Knox—to make sure the gold is there. If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset.” His decision comes at a time when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) is preparing a nationwide audit of US assets, and a simple question on X has now turned into a political firestorm. Elon Musk questions US gold reserves, D.O.G.E jumps in It all started when an X user asked Elon if the gold at Fort Knox still exists. His response? “Surely it’s reviewed at least every year.” That assumption turned out to be wrong. The last time anyone saw the gold was in 2017, when Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin paid a visit. Before that it was in 1974 when reporters and lawmakers were given a rare glimpse inside after conspiracy theories about missing gold started spreading. The US Treasury claims Fort Knox holds gold worth $425 billion at today’s prices, but no independent verification has taken place in nearly 50 years. The vault remains one of the most heavily guarded locations on Earth, and no single person alive knows all the steps required to open it. Musk’s casual post triggered outrage across Washington, prompting Senator Rand Paul to demand an official audit of the reserves. “Nope. Let’s do it,” Rand wrote, reiterating once again that he doesn’t believe the government’s numbers. His father, Ron Paul, has been pushing for gold audits for decades, insisting that Americans have no proof the gold even exists. Senator Cynthia Lummis took the debate even further, calling for a super radical change. “Bitcoin fixes this,” she told Musk. “A bitcoin reserve could be audited anytime 24/7 with a basic computer. It’s time to upgrade our reserves.” Musk, who has flirted with pro-Bitcoin ideas in the past, responded with a thinking emoji, hinting that he might actually consider it. Bitcoin’s blockchain is fully transparent, unlike Fort Knox, which remains sealed away with no public access. Lummis has been pushing for the US to create a Bitcoin reserve, believing that it’s superior to gold in every way. Trump orders Pentagon spending cuts as part of D.O.G.E’s efficiency mission While the gold drama unfolds, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been given a new directive—cut 8% from the Pentagon’s $850 billion budget every year for the next five years. This is also part of D.O.G.E’s latest cost-cutting mission, and Hegseth wasted no time getting to work. “The time for preparation is over—we must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth wrote in a memo to top Pentagon officials, senior commanders, and agency directors on Wednesday. He ordered them to draft plans for the spending cuts by February 24, but the details are still unclear. If carried out, the reductions would cut roughly $68 billion per year from defense spending, which could reshape the entire military structure. Trump himself has been floating an even bigger cut—reducing the Pentagon’s budget in half once geopolitical tensions ease. “At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost $1 trillion on the military,” he told the reporters on Air Force One. “When we straighten it all out, then one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to do that.” Cryptopolitan Academy: How to Write a Web3 Resume That Lands Interviews - FREE Cheat Sheet
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