Ask HN: What could Trump / Musk gain from inspecting Fort Knox?

I'm not sure if there's any possible "win" scenario from inspecting Fort Knox.

- How are they personally going to check the quality of every ingot of 400 tonnes of gold?

- How are they going to personally verify that there is actually 400 tonnes of gold?

- Pandering to conspiracy theorists seems to be a vote winner, but this would likely put an end to a conspiracy theory, which doesn't seem to be their MO.

- What if it's all there? What a waste, answering a question no one asked. That's the opposite of Government Efiiciency.

- What if it's not all there?

  - Blame Biden? Apparently they haven't had a full audit of the content of Fort Knox since the 50s and a partial audit in the 70s and there have been a LOT of administrations since the 70s, never mind the 50s, of both colours.

  - Fort Knox isn't / wasn't the fortress of its reputation.

  - They've just announced to the world that the US isn't as rich in gold as they'd been saying they are for over half-a-century.

  - What do they do now?
The only outcome I can see is that this going to be used as a platform for advertising the immutability and transparent accountability of blockchain technology. Question gold, point to an existing solution, pump bitcoin / cryptocurrency, make bank, again, and make loyalists of all the crypto-bros.

What other end game could they have in mind for this little exercise? (I can't see past my own theory)

8 points | by BLKNSLVR 9 hours ago

8 comments

  • dave4420 9 hours ago
    They’re flooding the zone, to prevent people from getting upset about other things they’re doing.

    Time you spend thinking about this is time you’re not thinking about damage they’re causing elsewhere.

  • austin-cheney 8 hours ago
    Fort Knox is the home of Army Human Resources Command. If I were on a data hoarding and people firing spree it’s where I would go.
  • rvz 9 hours ago
    > I'm not sure if there's any possible "win" scenario from inspecting Fort Knox.

    So what do you lose if they carry out the inspection?

    I don't think they have anything to hide from a small inspection.

    So let's find out then.

  • davydm 9 hours ago
    A day out on taxpayer dime. An ego boost for two narcissists.
  • fragmede 9 hours ago
    this is out of a movie, but by getting access to "inspect" the gold, they can then use that window to steal it.
  • blackeyeblitzar 9 hours ago
    If the gold reserves aren’t there then maybe we should be considering an alternative? Not sure. But auditing Fort Knox periodically seems reasonable to me. I would imagine there’s a process for this already but who knows.
    [-]
    • ggm 9 hours ago
      I would imagine its continuously audited. They have a view the audit is untrustable based on "goldbug" conspiracy theories and frank malice. So, they wish to apply their own audit. Which has a predetermined outcome: it's bad for us and good for them.
    • BLKNSLVR 9 hours ago
      There appear to be annual partial audits which, as you said, make sense. Hence my confusion as to what the personal presence of Trump and Musk could possibly contribute.

      Maybe it's as simple as wanting a behind the scenes tour, but they could probably do that without the media circus.

  • IAmGraydon 1 hour ago
    It was just inspected by the Republicans in 2017:

    https://apnews.com/general-news-domestic-news-domestic-news-...

    If I’m guessing, Musk put another insane conspiracy theory in Trump’s head and now Trump has to find out.

  • someothherguyy 9 hours ago
    I'd ask a LLM, as it is about as useful as asking a message board for a real answer to this.