Scott Bessent assures Americans Fort Knox gold is still there — then reminds them the dollar is no longer backed by it

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It's a question that has long fascinated Americans — including President Donald Trump (1).

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During a recent conversation (2) with Fox News, host Jesse Watters asked Bessent bluntly, "Have you visited Fort Knox?"

"I haven't. People on my staff have," Bessent replied. "The treasurer has been to Fort Knox, and I'm happy to say all gold is present and accounted for."

Built in 1936, the Fort Knox Bullion Depository is a highly fortified vault adjacent to the U.S. Army post in Fort Knox, Kentucky. According to the U.S. Mint (3), the facility currently holds 147.3 million ounces of gold, doesn't allow visitors and has only removed "very small quantities" of bullion for purity testing during audits.

"The U.S. has the largest pile of gold in the world — over $1 trillion at current market value," Bessent added.

The U.S. does hold more gold than any other country. But while the metal remains in government vaults, it no longer backs the dollars Americans carry in their wallets.

That became clear when Watters asked Bessent about framed displays of earlier U.S. currencies hanging on the wall.

"These are the displays of our currency over the years. We used to have silver certificates. We used to be backed by silver, sometimes gold. And then in the '70s, we just went to what was called fiat currency — where you didn't have to keep gold or silver in the vault," Bessent explained.

For decades after World War II, the dollar sat at the center of the Bretton Woods monetary system. Foreign governments could exchange U.S. dollars for gold at a fixed price of $35 an ounce, requiring Washington to maintain enough bullion to support confidence in the currency.

That arrangement ended in August 1971, when President Richard Nixon closed the "gold window" and stopped foreign central banks from converting dollars into U.S. gold. The move ended the dollar's last official tie to gold and marked the beginning of today's fiat system, where the currency is backed by the "full faith and credit" of the U.S. government rather than a fixed amount of gold.

And while the U.S. remains an economic powerhouse, critics of fiat currency have long warned that because the Federal Reserve can essentially print money in unlimited quantities, too much money creation can fuel inflation and erode the dollar's purchasing power over time.

Americans have already felt that erosion firsthand. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Inflation Calculator (4), $100 in 2026 has the same purchasing power as just $12.25 did in 1971.

That's right. $100 became $12 in real terms — even though the gold at Fort Knox never left the vault.