(NEW YORK) — China issued a warning on Wednesday night that it stands ready for any “type of war” with the United States in the aftermath of tariffs imposed hours earlier by the Trump administration.
A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry said the tariffs would not lead to a resolution of U.S. concerns about fentanyl originating in China.
“If the U.S. truly wants to solve the fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China on the basis of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit to address each other’s concerns,” Chinese spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press conference late Tuesday.
“If the U.S. has other agenda in mind and if war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” Jian added.
The remarks came soon after the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as 10% tariffs on imports from China. The fresh round of duties on Chinese goods doubled an initial set of tariffs placed on China last month.
Within minutes of the new U.S. tariffs taking effect, China unveiled on Tuesday its initial response by placing additional 10% to 15% tariffs on imported U.S. goods, like chicken, wheat, soybeans and beef.
Those duties will be on top of similar tariffs imposed back during the first Trump administration’s trade war in 2018. Some of those tariffs are already at 25%, though Beijing issued some waivers as a result of the 2020 “phase one” trade deal.
The new Chinese tariffs are set to come into effect for goods shipped out next Monday, March 10.
In a series of social media posts last month, Trump said he would place tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for hosting the manufacture and transport of illicit drugs that end up in the U.S.
During an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump also sharply criticized tariffs imposed by the Chinese government on U.S. goods.
“President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday afternoon that Trump may soon offer Canada and Mexico a pathway to relief from tariffs placed on some goods covered by North America’s free trade agreement.
Lutnick did not mention a potential compromise with China.
(WASHINGTON) — A sharply divided Supreme Court on Wednesday narrowly ruled that the Trump administration must comply with a district court order and pay out nearly $2 billion in foreign assistance funds to nonprofit aid groups for work already completed on the government’s behalf.
The court ruled 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett siding with the liberal justices. The court did not elaborate on the decision but said the district court judge should “clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order, with due regard for the feasibility of any compliance timelines.”
A lower court judge is currently weighing whether or not to impose a longer-term preliminary injunction against the foreign aid freeze.
Justice Samuel Alito said in his dissent that he was “stunned” by the majority’s decision.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic “No,” but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise,” he wrote.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said Tuesday he has ordered state prosecutors to execute search warrants and issue subpoenas in the “nowactive criminal investigation” into influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan Tate, after they arrived in the state from Romania.
The announcement was first posted to X, saying, “Last week, I directed my office to work with our law enforcement partners to conduct a preliminary inquiry into Andrew and Tristan Tate.”
It continued, “Based on a thorough review of the evidence, I’ve directed the Office of Statewide Prosecution to execute search warrants and issue subpoenas in the now-active criminal investigation into the Tate brothers.”
The brothers landed at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Feb. 27 after Romania lifted a travel restriction on them, despite its ongoing criminal investigations into the Tates for human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group with the goal of sexually exploiting women in two cases. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape.
The Tate brothers deny all charges against them.
The two had been confined to Romania since late 2022 and were charged in both 2023 and 2024. Romanian officials announced that court restrictions prohibiting the brothers from leaving Romania while awaiting trial had been lifted, but that the charges against them remained in force. The Tates also face another criminal case in the United Kingdom, where an arrest warrant has been issued on separate allegations of human trafficking and rape. The UK government has faced calls to demand the Tates’ extradition from the U.S.
The Tates’ release followed reports of lobbying by President Donald Trump’s administration. Trump denied any knowledge of it when questioned by reporters about their arrival in the United States. But Romania’s foreign minister has confirmed that Trump’s special envoy, Richard Grenell, raised the brothers’ case during a meeting in February, although he denied being pressured. Key Trump officials and allies, including Elon Musk and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. have previously condemned the case against the Tates.
The charges against the Tates remain in force and they will be expected to return to Romania for court appearances, according to a statement from Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT.) The agency warned that failure to observe the remaining judicial restrictions could result in harsher restrictions being instated.
Despite other Trump allies’ support for the Tates, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed surprise and anger at their arrival in Florida, telling reporters on the day that the Tates were “not welcome” given the conduct they are accused of.
Uthmeier, the attorney general, said he had directed state law enforcement to investigate whether any of their alleged crimes relating to human trafficking and violence against women triggered Florida jurisdiction, and pledging to “hold them accountable” if so.
One of the alleged victims at the center of one of the Romanian cases against Tate is a Florida woman. The American citizen has accused the Tates of luring her to Romania under the pretence of romantic relationship and then pressuring her into working as a pornographic webcam model, according to court documents.
The Tates have denied the woman’s accusations.
It is unclear if the new Florida investigation involves the women’s allegations. Uthmeier declined to give details on Tuesday but pledged to use “every tool” to hold the Tates accountable.
“These guys have themselves publicly admitted to participating in what very much appears to be soliciting, trafficking, preying upon women around the world,” he told a local reporter. “People can spin it however they want, but in Florida this type of behaviour is viewed as atrocious. We’re not going to accept it.”
“If these guys did criminal activity here in Florida we will go after them with full force of law and hold them accountable,” he said.
A lawyer representing the Tates, Joseph D. McBride, condemned the investigation, accusing Uthmeier of making “inflammatory, biased” comments and claiming the case was politically motivated.
“Today, Attorney General James Uthmeier threw ethics law out of the window when he publicly took a side in an ongoing Florida lawsuit where Andrew and Tristan Tate are suing a Florida woman,” McBride, wrote on X, challenging the attorney general to present evidence.
McBride blamed the new investigation on DeSantis, calling him “an angry, vertically challenged imp who hates Tate and Trump for being actual men. Attorney General Uthmeier is his pathetic lap dog.”
The Tates brought a defamation lawsuit against the Florida woman in the state in 2023, accusing her and her family of conspiring to damage their reputations by participating in the Romanian case. Last month, the woman brought her own countersuit against the Tates, accusing them of using the defamation lawsuit to try to silence victims. Both cases are currently pending.
A lawyer for the Florida woman in the Romania case praised the attorney general’s move to criminally investigate the Tates.
“Florida AG Uthmeier is right to criminally investigate the Tate brothers who have publicly boasted about exploiting women yet have continuously sought to undermine the Romanian investigation into these crimes,” Dani Pinter, senior vice president at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said in a statement. “Over 40 victims have been identified across Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They deserve justice. Florida’s investigation is a positive step towards justice realized.”
One of the women who is an alleged victim at the center of one of the Romanian cases is an American woman who lives in Florida.
It’s unclear from Uthmeier’s statement what the investigation is examining right now or how it might proceed.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso and T. Michelle Murphy contributed to this report.
House Speaker Mike Johnson appears on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on March 5, 2025. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — As Washington sought on Wednesday to make sense of President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress, House Republicans saw the speech as going “overwhelmingly well,” while Democrats said it was “one of the most partisan and divisive speeches” ever delivered by a president.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Wednesday, presenting their parties’ differing views of Trump’s joint address to Congress.
“That was one of the most partisan and divisive speeches every delivered by an American president,” Jeffries told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Trump spoke to thundering applause from Republican majorities in the House and Senate, but faced heckles from some raucous Democrats.
“The speech last night went overwhelmingly well,” Johnson said on Wednesday on “GMA.” “It was not a speech for the mainstream media it was a speech for the American people.”
During the speech, Rep. Al Green, an 11-term Democrat representing the Houston area, stood up and pointed his cane at the dais and shouted, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid.” He was escorted from the chamber.
Democrats resorted to “pettiness,” and their protests during the speech amounted to a “a sad affair,” Johnson said on Wednesday. He pointed to Green “trying to interrupt the whole proceeding”
“If the Democrats want a 77-year-old congressman to be the face of their resistance, heckling the president, then bring it on,” Johnson said. “But we couldn’t allow that on the House floor.”
Jeffries responded, saying the “vast majority” of Democrats “showed restraint, listened to what the president had to say.” He said he “strongly” disagreed with Johnson’s characterization.
“The biggest problem I had with the speech, there was nothing said, nothing laid out, nothing articulated by Donald Trump to meet the needs of the American people, particularly as it relates to the economy,” he said.
The president heaped praise on Elon Musk, the billionaire tech mogul, and his Department of Government Efficiency, which has been busy slashing the federal government.
Johnson shrugged off concern that Musk appeared to some to be an “unelected bureaucrat,” saying he amounted to a “patriotic American.”
“He’s doing a great service for the country and he ought to be applauded,” he said.
Trump defended the tariffs he put in place on Tuesday on goods from Mexico and China, along with the increased duties in Chinese goods.
“Tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs they’re about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again,” Trump said during the speech.
But Jeffries pointed to kitchen-table issues that, he said, the president hasn’t focused enough on.
“Donald Trump promised to lower costs. In fact, he promised to lower costs on day one,” he said. “We know that grocery prices are not going down, they are going up, inflation is going up, and the stock market is going down, which is hurting the retirement security of everyday Americans.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — The prime minister of Greenland warned President Donald Trump off his controversial ambition to acquire the territory, writing on social media Wednesday, “Greenland is ours.”
Trump again expressed his desire to take control of the Arctic island — which is a semiautonomous territory within Denmark — in his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. America, he said, would acquire the strategic territory “one way or the other.”
Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede dismissed Trump’s remarks in a post to Facebook.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” he wrote. “We are not Americans, we are not Danes because we are Greenlanders. This is what the Americans and their leaders need to understand, we cannot be bought and we cannot be ignored.”
“The future of the country will be determined by us in our country, of course,” Egede added. “Greenland is ours. We do not want to be Americans, nor Danes, we are Kalaallit. The Americans and their leaders must understand that.”
“We are not for sale and cannot be taken,” Egede said. “The future is decided by us in Greenland.”
Trump has expressed ambition to acquire Greenland since his first term. The mineral-rich island sits in the Arctic Circle along two potential shipping routes through the Arctic — the Northwest Passage and the Transpolar Sea Route — which are expected to become more navigable as climate change and warmer waters causes the retreat of Arctic sea ice.
During his address to Congress on Tuesday, Greenland was central to Trump’s foreign policy remarks.
“We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America,” Trump said. “We will keep you safe. We will make you rich. And together we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before.”
The president said his administration was “working with everybody involved to try to get it.”
“We need it really for international world security,” he said. “And I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
Denmark has also dismissed any suggestion of transferring Greenland’s sovereignty to the U.S.
In February, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It is part of our territory, and it’s not for sale.”
Frederiksen and officials in Greenland have suggested negotiations on an expanded U.S. military footprint on the island in response to Trump’s bid to acquire the territory outright.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian authorities reported a major Russian missile and drone strike on targets across the country on Tuesday night, with a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanding an immediate end to Moscow’s barrages as a condition for any peace deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 181 strike drones and three missiles into the country in the latest attack. The air force said 115 drones were shot down and 55 lost in location without causing damage.
The barrage coincided with President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, in which he said a potential peace between the two nations would be “beautiful.” The strikes began before Trump entered Congress and continued into the morning, indicated by Ukrainian air force alerts.
“Russia must stop the daily shelling of Ukraine immediately if it truly wants the war to end,” Andriy Yermak — the head of Zelenskyy’s office — wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — wrote on social media that “inflicting maximum defeat on the enemy” remains Moscow’s “main task.”
Authorities in the southern port city of Odesa reported a “massive” strike, with at least one person killed by drone shrapnel and parts of the city cut off from utilities.
“As a result of the attack in Odesa, critical infrastructure has been damaged and part of the city has been left without electricity, water and heat,” the city’s military administration wrote on Telegram.
“Private houses in the suburbs of Odessa were damaged by debris from downed enemy drones,” the statement said. Fires broke out and a missile hit “an empty sanatorium,” the administration said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces “hit the infrastructure of military airfields, an oil depot providing fuel to [Ukrainian military] units, production workshops and control points for unmanned aerial vehicles, the location of [Ukrainian] special operations forces’ boats.
The ministry said it also shot down eight Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight.
Russian and Ukrainian drone strikes have continued as both sides jostle for advantage in renewed peace talks being facilitated by President Donald Trump’s administration. Last month, the effort began with a meeting between American and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia without any Ukrainian involvement. The two sides expressed their intentions to revive bilateral ties and explore areas for future economic cooperation.
U.S.-Ukrainian ties have frayed badly since Trump returned to office with a vow to rapidly end the war. Tensions came to a head in last week’s explosive Oval Office meeting between the two presidents and with Vice President JD Vance in attendance. The meeting devolved into a shouting match with Zelenskyy’s team being asked to leave the White House afterwards.
As European allies mobilized to back Zelenskyy and urge reconciliation, Trump announced a freeze on all U.S. aid to Ukraine. Administration officials demanded an apology from Zelenskyy and assent for a controversial deal to give the U.S. access to valuable Ukrainian natural resources.
During his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said he received a letter from Zelenskyy, reading part of it aloud and suggesting that tensions between the two camps had cooled.
“I appreciate that he sent this letter, just got it a little while ago,” Trump said. “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”
In his first comments after the U.S. aid freeze was announced, Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Ukraine is ready to sign the minerals deal “in any time and in any convenient format.”
“None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” Zelenskyy said in a statement. “Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this,” Zelenskyy continued.
Referring to the disastrous Oval Office meeting, the Ukrainian leader said it “did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a signing ceremony at the Supreme Council of Russia and Belarus, December 6, 2024, in Minsk, Belarus. President Putin is having a one-day trip to Belarus. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko — a close ally of President Vladimir Putin — warned that the Kremlin “will never” accept a European troop deployment to Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv continue to maneuver for advantage in U.S.-sponsored peace negotiations.
In a wide-ranging interview with blogger Mario Naufal published late Tuesday, Lukashenko praised President Donald Trump’s forthright approach to Russia’s war on Ukraine and suggested Putin was ready to make peace.
Any proposal is unlikely to win Russian support if it includes the deployment of European forces into Ukraine, Lukashenko said.
“Russia will never agree to this,” he said. “At least, this is Russia’s position today. Especially since the leadership of the European Union, primarily in the person of Germany and France, is taking a very aggressive position at the moment.”
But the Belarusian leader also countered attacks by Trump and Putin on the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while offering Belarus as a location for peace negotiations. Unsuccessful ceasefire talks were held in Belarus in the hours and days after Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
“There is no need to push Zelenskyy now,” Lukashenko said, as quoted by the Belta state-owned news agency. “We need to convince and come to an agreement with Zelenskyy, because a large part of Ukrainian society is behind Zelenskyy.”
“If you want, come. Here, it is nearby — 200 kilometers from the Belarusian border to Kyiv,” Lukashenko added. “We will come to an agreement calmly, without noise, without shouting.”
“Tell Trump: I am waiting for him here together with Putin and Zelenskyy. We will sit down and come to an agreement calmly,” he said. “If you want to come to an agreement.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded positively to the offer of talks in Minsk. “This issue has not been brought up or discussed in any way,” Peskov told reporters Wednesday, as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency. “This is our main ally. Therefore, for us it is the best place for negotiations.”
Moscow has repeatedly accused NATO and its members of seeking to use Ukraine as a launching pad for aggression against Russia. Putin cited NATO expansion since the collapse of the Soviet Union as a key Russian grievance in the run up to his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Lukashenko appeared to play down that issue. “It is not so much about NATO expansion to the east, but about the threats that were created in Ukraine,” he said of Putin’s decision to launch the 2022 attack.
Leaders in Kyiv have framed the proposed and contentious U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal as a means to securing long-term American backing, and as a possible bridge to lasting U.S. security guarantees. Lukashenko suggested that the deal, which seems to have become a cornerstone of Trump’s Ukraine strategy, may unsettle the Kremlin.
“I have not discussed these issues with Russia and Putin,” he said. “But, most likely, this could be alarming if Russia feels that these agreements will go beyond the framework of economic relations.”
Lukashenko repeatedly appealed directly to Trump, who he described as an “incredible person” and a political “bulldozer.”
The Belarusian leader also encouraged the U.S. to align closer with Russia — a prospect that has unsettled European and Ukrainian leaders since Trump’s return to the White House. Indeed, Trump’s decision this week to freeze all U.S. military aid to Ukraine left officials in Kyiv and across Europe reeling.
“The U.S. is the first country in the world, high-tech, rich,” Lukashenko said. “They are capable of many things. Russia understands this. And Russia will strive to establish very good relations with the United States of America.”
“In order for the planet to be in balance, so that there are no incomprehensible wars, like in the Middle East or in Ukraine, so that there are no conflicts, an alliance between Russia and the United States is possible and very important,” he added. “An alliance for economic development. It is possible and important. It will last a long time.”
The Belarusian leader appeared to chastise Trump for his unique political style, warning that the president must deliver on his promises.
“There are too many statements that should not have been made at all,” Lukashenko said. “You need to cool down after the elections. And you need to take steps in the interests of U.S. voters, first of all, and, secondly, the entire world community.”
“You don’t have much time to prove to American society that you are capable of something,” he continued. “If you don’t do this, the Republicans will suffer a crushing defeat in the next elections. And it will be justified.”
The two nuclear reactors at FPL Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Homestead, Florida. (D.A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Like a radioactive hot potato, a solution to America’s growing stockpile of nuclear waste keeps getting passed around.
The issue lands before the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a dispute from Texas over the federal government’s authority to allow temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel at privately owned facilities far from reactors.
The justices are being asked to reject the arrangement, even though it’s far from clear where the highly toxic waste would go.
Congress remains at an impasse over plans first approved more than 40 years ago to hold all of the country’s nuclear waste at a single permanent, underground federal facility, which has never been completed.
There are more than 91,000 metric tons of radioactive waste from U.S. commercial nuclear power plants, according to the Energy Department. The waste remains dangerous for thousands of years and must be carefully managed.
Plaintiffs in the high court case, including the state of Texas and a group of landowners, are seeking to block Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval of a private nuclear waste storage facility in the Permian Basin, an area rich with oil deposits and limited sources of safe drinking water near the New Mexico border.
Congress in 1954 gave the commission near exclusive control over the possession and transfer of nuclear material in the U.S., including the ability to issue licenses to private entities to store it in its various forms.
In 1982, lawmakers authorized creation of a federal nuclear waste site, later designated as Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and encouraged interim waste storage by private energy companies at power plants while construction moved forward.
Texas argues that because neither law makes explicit mention of storing nuclear waste at private facilities, far from the reactors where it was generated, the commission lacks the authority to issue a license.
A federal appeals court agreed, blocking construction.
“What to do with the nation’s spent nuclear fuel implicates a host of difficult technological, environmental, and political considerations. Thankfully, that policy debate is not this Court’s concern,” Texas argues in its brief to the high court. “Because Congress has decided how to handle spent nuclear fuel, all that matters is that Yucca Mountain is not in Texas and [a private storage company] is not the federal government.”
The commission insists its broad power includes a clear right to authorize temporary, privately run nuclear storage sites and that they are an imperative for the nation.
Roughly 20% of the energy consumed in the U.S. is nuclear powered, resulting in more than 2,000 metric tons of radioactive waste every year. It all has to go somewhere.
“Such storage is essential to continued operations because no currently available or reasonably foreseeable reactor and fuel cycle technology developments have the potential to fundamentally alter the waste management challenge this nation confronts over at least the next several decades,” the government argues in court documents.
The contested site in Texas, which would be run by Interim Storage Partners, had been approved by the commission to accept up to 5,000 metric tons of nuclear waste per year for 40 years.
The company told the justices in its legal brief that invalidating government authority to send nuclear waste to privately owned sites would be “destabilizing and potentially devastating to a critical industry at a critical time.”
“Utilities are forced to deal with spent nuclear fuel storage issues on a larger scale than anyone would have liked or anticipated,” the company wrote.
A ruling in favor of the government would allow the Texas storage facility to move forward. A decision in favor of the state could scuttle the plan and upend previously approved licenses for at least a dozen other privately owned nuclear waste storage locations.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision by the end of June.
Fort Knox, Kentucky: Exterior view of the United States Bullion Depository at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. (Bettmann via Getty Images)
(FORT KNOX, KY) — President Donald Trump is casting doubt — without providing evidence — over whether much of the nation’s store of gold still exists at the famous United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, raising questions about whether somebody “stole” it.
What’s more, he’s said he wants to go to Fort Knox to see for himself.
The ultra-secure facility holds approximately 147.3 million ounces of gold, according to the U.S. Mint.
In raising questions, Trump is echoing Elon Musk, who has repeatedly questioned the whereabouts of the gold.
Their expressed skepticism comes despite Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying that there is an audit every year and that “all the gold is present and accounted for.”
It’s also despite Trump’s treasury secretary in his first term, Steven Mnuchin, personally visiting the reserves and confirming that the gold was there.
Still, both Musk and Trump continue to raise questions without evidence.
In an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast released Friday — one of Musk’s first comprehensive interviews since becoming a “special government employee” — Musk repeated this suspicion.
“A live tour of Fort Knox would be awesome … is the gold there or not? They say it is — is it real? Or did somebody spray paint some lead?” he asked.
In fact, these concerns appear to be brought to Musk’s attention recently. On Feb. 15, he reacted to an X post that asked him to look into the gold supply, in which he responded, “Surely it’s reviewed at least every year?”
Fort Knox is a military base that has stored U.S. gold since 1937, according to the U.S. Army’s website.
What do Trump and Musk believe?
Last week, Trump brought up the gold supply after being asked about Musk’s most recent DOGE efforts.
“We have found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud so far. And we’ve just started. We’re actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there, because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tons of gold,” Trump said.
He raised it again at his recent meeting with the nation’s governors at the White House on Feb. 21, saying that they plan to “open the doors to Fort Knox.”
“You grew up hearing about Fort Knox. You can’t get in. You can’t even see it. Nobody sees it. You go there and the place is dry,” Trump said.
Trump also referred to the site as the “fabled Fort Knox” while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One last week.
Musk — who has been tasked to eliminate government waste and fraud — has repeatedly expressed suspicion about the gold bars.
“This gold is the property of the American people. I sure hope it’s still there!” he wrote on X last month. He has also repeatedly touted that the gold could have been stolen, asking on X, “who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox?”
Musk floated the idea of live-streaming a walkthrough of Fort Knox, responding to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ coverage of his comments by suggesting he’d like to film inside the vaults.
He repeated this idea during the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, in addition to saying, “part of this is also, you know, let’s have some fun.”
During Musk’s podcast appearance with Joe Rogan on Friday, Rogan asked the billionaire to think about his DOGE findings in relation to the gold.
“Think about all the other stuff that you pointed out. All the checks that just go out, the NGO payments, the social security people … now apply that to the gold,” Rogan said, to which Musk replied, “absolutely.”
Not all members of Trump’s administration share the same doubts.
“I think the gold is probably there. It’s probably almost certainly there,” David Sacks, Trump’s crypto czar, told Fox News last week, though he still agreed with the president’s calls to investigate the matter.
“Nobody thinks this is a crazy idea to go check because we don’t know,” Sacks added, arguing that “we cannot fully trust that our gold is still in Fort Knox” because of the “corruption” in Washington.
When was the gold last seen?
According to the U.S. Mint, “the only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity of gold during regularly scheduled audits,” and no other gold has been transferred to or from the depository “for many years.”
The building was constructed using 16,000 cubic feet of granite, 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, 750 tons of reinforcing steel, and 670 tons of structural steel, the U.S. Mint says.
The gold is located at Fort Knox because it is “far from either coast, adjacent to a military installation for added security and close to a rail head for transportation,” according to a fact sheet from the U.S. Mint.
The depository has a strict no-visitors policy, as Trump alluded to, and even the president is restricted from accessing the vault. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only non-authorized person to obtain access.
However, it first opened it in 1974 for journalists and a congressional delegation to view the reserves after rumors swirled surrounding the gold’s whereabouts.
“We’ve never done this before and we’ll probably never do it again,” then-Director of the U.S. Mint Mary Brooks said after displaying the gold supply, according to a New York Times report following the visit.
The second viewing came over 40 years later in 2017 during Trump’s first administration. Then-Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were members of a delegation invited to view the gold.
“The gold was there when I visited it,” Mnuchin said in Feb., adding that he’s “sure” nobody’s moved it and emphasizing the “serious security protocols in place.”
Former Republican Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin — who was present during this visit — also attested to the gold being at Fort Knox.
“The reality is, there is an extraordinary amount of gold that is in there,” Bevin told Fox News Business last week. He added that he agrees in transparency and that “the people’s wealth should be known and accounted for, no question.”
“Is it possible that through the years things could be taken? It is,” he admitted, before arguing that the building “is so ridiculously secure that it is not possible to sneak anything out of there.”
Bevin also floated the possibility that Musk, as the world’s richest man, may want to see what his riches look like “in physical form.”
“It is almost equivalent to how much his net worth is,” Bevin said, admitting that he would want to see the gold, too, if he were Musk.
There are “restrictions on sharing any information related to the facility’s security,” according to documents detailing the 2017 visit’s schedule and security measures published by CNN.
“Access to the USBD is limited, as the facility exists solely for the storage of gold,” the document said. “To prevent compromise of security, photographs will be subject to review by the U.S. Mint Police.”
“The Treasury Secretary allows the visit when rumors persist that all the gold had been removed from the vaults,” the U.S. Mint said in a statement.
After affirming that “all” of the gold was present, Bessent said last month, “any senator, they call the Treasury, we’re happy to arrange a visit. They can do an inspection.”
According to the Treasury’s monthly status report tracking gold owned by the Treasury, 147.3 million ounces of gold were recorded in Fort Knox as of Jan. 31, 2025.
Fort Knox has also been utilized to temporarily store valuable historical items, such as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution during World War II, as well as the Magna Carta.
The urgency to locate the gold comes despite the U.S. dollar no longer being linked to the value of gold. In 1971, Roosevelt ended the gold standard and switched to a fiat money system.
However, the traditional belief that the U.S. dollar and gold have an inverse relationship still prevails. When the dollar weakens — especially during times of inflation — the value of gold is believed to increase.
Conspiracy theories surrounding Fort Knox
Rumors of the gold being missing or stolen have been a decades-long conspiracy theory.
In 1971, Peter Beter, a lawyer and financial adviser to former President John F. Kennedy, alleged that British spies informed him that the gold in Fort Knox was secretly removed, the Washington Post reported.
Beter’s book, The Conspiracy Against the Dollar, continued to make such allegations that gold was missing. The 1974 visit, inviting journalists and congressmen to view the vault, followed soon after.
The 1964 James Bond film, “Goldfinger,” also centers around a gold smuggler who is being investigated for scheming a break in of Fort Knox in an attempt to contaminate its gold supply.
In 2010, then-Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was outspoken in his suspicions regarding the gold’s whereabouts. He introduced the “Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2011” which called for a full audit of U.S. gold reserves.
When asked during an interview last month if he thinks the U.S. government has all the gold it claims to have, Paul said “no, I don’t. But I don’t have evidence to prove it.”
“Even if they showed us the gold, maybe the gold has been loaned out,” Paul said, citing ways that the government can “deceive the people.”
Musk has expressed support for Paul, even throwing his support behind calls for the former congressman to audit the gold.
Last month, in response to X posts asking Paul to audit the Federal Reserve, Musk responded “good idea” and “this will be great.”
Ron Paul’s son, Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, weighed in with a similar position to his father. Responding to Musk’s tweet asking whether the Fort Knox gold supply is reviewed every year, Rand Paul responded, “Nope. Let’s do it.”
On Feb. 21, Rand Paul penned a letter to Bessent requesting to audit the gold reserves at Fort Knox.
Appearing on “Fox and Friends” last month, Rand Paul acknowledged that the treasury secretary attested that the gold was there but emphasized the need for it to be audited, arguing “the more transparency, the better.”
Musk appears to not mind that his claims are perceived to be tied to conspiracy theories.
During The Joe Rogan Experience, the podcast episode opened with Rogan and Musk attempting to ask Musk’s Grok AI machine if all the gold is still in Fort Knox. While Grok AI did not provide an answer, she asked if Musk was a “conspiracy theorist” to which the two shared bouts of laughter over.
“These conspiracy theories don’t really spread per se on their own, beliefs in these conspiracy theories are instead a product of politicians and media elites sharing these ideas to trusting audiences who are already disposed toward believing them,” Peter Uscinski, professor at University of Miami that specializes in conspiracy theories, told ABC News.
“Trump and his allies have shared numerous conspiracy theories over the past eight years; there is nothing new about this, and it ties in closely with Trump and Musk setting themselves up as people who are uncovering fraud in the government,” Uscinski added.
ABC News’ Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(ROME) — The pope “rested well during the night” and woke shortly after 8 a.m. this morning, his 20th day in hospital, as his condition remains stable and his prognosis remains reserved, according to the Vatican.
The pontiff had needed medical intervention amid two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, Vatican sources told ABC News.
The pope did not have any episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
Pope Francis has remained “alert, cooperating with therapy and oriented,” the Vatican’s press office, the Holy See, said. He underwent “high-flow oxygen therapy and respiratory physiotherapy” on Tuesday, the Vatican said.
He resumed noninvasive mechanical ventilation overnight into Wednesday morning “as planned,” according to the Vatican.
The pope, 88, was taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resumed receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube, Vatican sources said Tuesday. He was no longer wearing a mechanical ventilation mask, a device that pumped oxygen into his lungs, the sources said.
Wednesday marks Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and giving. It concludes with Holy Week, which leads to Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.
The Vatican said last week that Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, major penitentiary and delegate of the pope, will replace Pope Francis at Wednesday’s liturgical celebration for Ash Wednesday in Rome.
The Cardinal will read the Homily prepared by the Pope and the text will be released later today, the Vatican said.
Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. The pontiff had a bronchospasm attack on Friday, church officials said.
