Tag Archives: Fort Knox

Trump Fort Knox inspection: Show Me the Gold ‘If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset’

Important Takeaways:

  • President Donald Trump vowed to personally go to Fort Knox to inspect whether or not some of the nation’s gold reserves had been stolen.
  • And he said the billions in bullion better be there when he opens the doors.
  • ‘All my life, I’ve heard about Fort Knox. That’s where the gold is kept, right?’ he told the Republican Governors Association on Thursday night.
  • ‘We’re going to open up the doors. I’m going to see we have gold there. We want to find out, did anybody steal the gold in Fort Knox?’
  • He also vowed: ‘I’m going to actually go. We’re going to open the doors. We’re going to inspect Fort Knox. We want to make sure that we actually have, you know, 400 tons of gold, or whatever to hell it is. It’s a lot of gold. I don’t want to open it and the cupboards are bare.’
  • Musk was asked on X about viewing the facility and responded: ‘Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?’
  • But Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said it’s not and personally invited Musk to come view it.
  • Trump indicated Thursday night he wants to come on the trip, which has not been scheduled.
  • He told reporters on Wednesday that he wanted Musk to look into the issue. But he had no answer when a reporter asked him where the gold may have gone.
  • ‘If the gold isn’t there, we’re going to be very upset,’ the president replied.
  • Fort Knox holds roughly 147 million troy ounces of bulk gold, which represents over half the gold held by the U.S. federal government or 56.35 percent of the total.
  • The U.S. Mint Police are responsible for protecting the gold reserve.
  • Gold reserves in the U.S., just like all gold reserves, act as a financial safety net against economic instability.
  • It stores actual, tangible value and helps hedge against inflation with the intention of maintaining public confidence in the nation’s currency despite the gold standard no longer being the way the economy operates.
  • The last inspection of the gold reserves appears to have been in August 2017 when Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell brought a small group, including then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to the vault.
  • The first inspection of the vault was in 1943 by President Franklin Roosevelt in the aftermath of the Great Depression and in the throes of World War II.

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Special Report: Reuters’ testing triggers lead cleanup at Fort Knox base

FILE PHOTO: Col. John Cale Brown and Darlena Brown pose for a portrait with their sons J.C. and Rider at their home in 2017. Picture taken 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

By Joshua Schneyer

FORT KNOX, Kentucky (Reuters) – Fort Knox is famed for its ultra-secure bullion depository that holds $100 billion in U.S. gold reserves. But some families at the Kentucky Army base have concerns about another heavy metal: lead.

When Reuters offered lead testing to military families at several bases, the highest result came from a peeling paint sample one Knox family collected from their covered back porch. It contained 50 percent lead, or 100 times the federal hazard level.

In April, a reporter visited the home, where Karla Hughes lives with her husband, an Army captain, and 4-year-old daughter, who doesn’t have elevated lead levels. In a grassy area where children play nearby, paint chipping from an abandoned electric switch house contained 16 percent lead.

Lead samples line up ready for testing at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, U.S. March 29, 2018. Picture taken March 29, 2018. To match Special Report USA-MILITARY/HOUSING. REUTERS/Mike Wood

Lead samples line up ready for testing at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, U.S. March 29, 2018. Picture taken March 29, 2018. To match Special Report USA-MILITARY/HOUSING. REUTERS/Mike Wood

Several historic homes on the Hughes’ street had old paint peeling from exterior trim, porch or window areas.

Knox Hills, the landlord for more than 2,300 homes on base, removed exterior lead paint from many older homes in recent years but left others untouched.

When Hughes complained about paint conditions in April, the company sent a maintenance worker, who repainted a porch beam but conducted no testing.

Later, Hughes pointed out the copious black paint peeling from a porch handrail to a housing supervisor from Knox Hills. “That’s not lead paint,” she said he assured her. Knox Hills declined to comment on the episode.

A reporter was a block away and later watched as Hughes collected paint falling from the handrail. Lab testing showed its lead content was 28 times a federal threshold that would require abatement.

In response, Knox Hills announced a neighborhood-wide lead paint abatement project focused on porch banisters, several home exteriors and the old switch-house. Residents said the project involves around 40 homes; it included “complete removal of paint and repainting” of the porch handrails.

Without Reuters’ testing data, Hughes said, “this danger may have been left undiscovered and ignored.”

“Knox Hills is taking the proper steps,” said Army spokeswoman Colonel Kathleen Turner. No child living on base has tested high for lead in years, she said.

Knox Hills is a partnership between the Army and private contractors including Lendlease, a property developer headquartered in Sydney, Australia, that operates military housing at several U.S. bases.

“Our response to these concerns, as in all resident issues, are our highest priority,” said Lendlease spokeswoman Meryl Exley.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)