Elon Musk is leaning into a conspiracy theory about Fort Knox not containing any gold, insisting that he and President Trump will be touring the bullion depository.

The leader of the Department of Government Efficiency has gone so far as to taunt officials at the gold reserves located near Louisville, Kentucky, in a post a meme on X that insinuates they scramble to paint bricks with gold spray paint before his arrival with Mr. Trump to inspect the vaults.

Mr. Musk first started amplifying the rumors circulating online earlier this month and responded to a post on the X account for Zero Hedge.

“It would be great if @elonmusk could take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of US gold is there. Last time anyone looked was 50 years ago in 1974,” reads a February 15 post on X from the financial news blog.

“Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?” Mr. Musk asked in a reply.

“It should be. It isn’t,” was the response from Zero Hedge.

The last official audit of Fort Know was done in 1974 by the U.S. General Accounting Office and the Treasury Department, according to Yahoo News. 

Treasury Secretary Bessent has attempted to throw cold water on the conspiracy theory, saying all of the gold is accounted for.

“I can tell the American people on camera right now, there was a report, September 30th, 2024, all the gold is there,” he said last week in an interview with Bloomberg TV. 

The secretary also said that visual audits are done yearly.

Despite Mr. Bessent’s assurances, Mr. Trump has also leaned into the theory and insisted during remarks at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Saturday that he and Mr. Musk would pay a visit to Fort Knox to see with their own eyes.

“Wouldn’t that be terrible? We open [it] up, and this Fort Knox has got nothing. It’s just solid granite that’s 5 feet thick. The front door, you need six musclemen to open it up. I don’t even think they have windows,” Mr. Trump said. “Wouldn’t that be terrible if we opened it up and there was no gold there? So, we’re going to open those doors, we’re going to take a look. And if there’s 27 tons of gold, we’ll be very happy.”

He was doubling down on comments made earlier in the previous week in a speech to the Republican Governors Association.

“We’re going to open up the doors. I’m going to see we have gold there,” he said. 

“We want to find out, did anybody steal the gold in Fort Knox?”