Elon Musk encouraged to crack open Fort Knox and audit the $425 billion gold reserves inside — and Rand Paul wants to help

Elon Musk could get a golden audit.

The world’s richest man got encouragement Sunday to bring his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) into one of the most secure places in the world: Fort Knox.

Sen. Rand Paul called for a review of the vault’s massive gold reserves — worth an estimated $425 billion based on market rates — in response to the tech mogul’s musings about the stash.

Musk, 53, drew attention to a user who asked him to “take a look inside Fort Knox just to make sure the 4,580 tons of US gold is there.”

“Surely it’s reviewed at least every year,” Musk replied to X user Zerohedge.

“Nope. Let’s do it,” Paul (R-Ky.), 62, chimed in, referring to the Army installation south of Louisville.

The Kentucky senator’s father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) — a big gold bug — had previously pressed government officials for greater transparency on the country’s reserves.

It’s unclear the last time the facility underwent a comprehensive audit, as the vaults were totally off-limits for decades.

The first tour of the facility came in 1974 when journalists and a Congressional delegation were allowed in following claims the stores had been looted. The vaults were opened again in 2017, during the last Trump administration, for Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to view them.

Since at least the 1970s, Fort Knox has been plagued by conspiracy theories that the piles of gold supposedly held within don’t exist – and that the riches were instead sold off by the US government.

Former Rep. Paul’s attempt to get inside in 2010 even included legislation that would see the fort audited, using similar language to what his son is now employing.

“My attitude is, let’s just find out what’s there,” Paul said at the time, according to CBS News.

When Mnuchin visited in 2017 — bringing along Rep. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) — the gold stores they saw were intact.

But the vault’s relevance is not what it used to be since the US left the gold standard in 1971. For about a hundred years before then, all US currency was backed by stockpiles of gold kept safe in places like Fort Knox.

But since the US left the gold standard, its holdings in Fort Knox are merely another asset held by the Federal Reserve.

Nevertheless, Fort Knox’s hold on the public imagination has been strong — and was solidified when the fictional criminal mastermind Auric Goldfinger attempted to break in but was thwarted by James Bond in the iconic 1964 film “Goldfinger.”

The real vault has at least 147.3 million ounces — 9.2 million lbs. — worth of gold sitting in its vaults, according to the US Mint. That’s about half of the Treasury’s reserve gold.

(The largest gold vault in the world is actually in Lower Manhattan at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building, but that also houses gold from other governments.)

The government assesses the book value of $42.22 per ounce, totaling about $6.2 billion worth of gold in Fort Knox.

But that’s almost a comical undervalue; gold is currently trading at nearly $2,900 per troy ounce after skyrocketing in the last year — meaning the stash is worth hundreds of billions.

Gold began arriving at Fort Knox in 1937. The largest amount of gold that had been stashed in the Kentucky-based Army installation was 649.6 million ounces in late 1941, per its website.

Fort Knox is heavily fortified. The US government claims that the precious metal bullion’s structure and content are “known by only a few” and “no one person knows all the procedures to open the vault.”

The Kentucky-based facility’s bullion depository, which stores other valuable objects to the US government besides gold, does not allow visitors and has rarely been opened to the public.

During World War II, it was used to safeguard the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The founding documents were returned to Washington, DC, when the war concluded.

Musk has been busy conducting what is essentially an audit of the federal government’s spending as part of his DOGE team.

President Trump has suggested that Musk’s DOGE team began with about “12 geniuses” and has since ballooned to “almost 100 people.”

The Post contacted reps for Fort Knox and the US Mint for comment.