An issue which not long ago had only the support of Ron Paul has now become a priority for the Trump Administration: the auditing of Fort Knox. At CPAC last week, Donald Trump took time out of speech to boast that he and Elon Musk were soon to be traveling to America’s largest gold depository “to see if the gold is there. Because maybe somebody stole the gold. Tons of gold.”

The topic of Fort Knox is interesting itself for a number of other reasons. Its gold reserve stands as a monument to the role that gold once played in the international monetary system (most of the reserves believed to be there came from international markets, not FDR-era gold confiscation.) Should there be any discrepancy between the gold that is there and what is reported, the “cui bono?” questions will tie directly back to the lingering value gold has as a financial asset of global importance.

The larger issue, however, is a more visceral one: it is perhaps the most basic measuring stick for the legitimacy of the federal government itself. According to conventional wisdom, it would be unthinkable to suggest that the heavy gold bars, regularly audited on paper by the Treasury, wouldn’t be precisely where they are reported to be. Anything otherwise would require a historic caper, at a scale that could only be done by the greatest thieves in American history: the feds themselves.

Yet Trump himself is the electoral manifestation of distrust of the regime, and Musk’s blitzkrieg through federal departments is the closest we have seen to populist anger translated into a true assault on our institutions. As such, the Fort Knox question is perfect political theater: it is either a demonstration of transparency for a question that lingered among political outsiders for decades that deserves a true answer, or it is the most visceral vindication of every fear one may have about their government.

The inherently populist nature of the Fort Knox Question and its recent rise to prominence creates a valid reason to remember one of the few other members of Congress who ever raised the question: former Democrat Congressman Larry McDonald.