If Your Country’s Gold Is Still at the NY Federal Reserve, It’s Time to Bring It Home Before Trump Takes It
As of 2024, the New York Federal Reserve’s underground vault houses approximately 6,331 metric tons of gold — some 507,000 gold bars belonging to central banks across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with a market value exceeding $500 billion. It is the largest known gold depository in the world. This vast stockpile of sovereign wealth was entrusted to the United States primarily during and after World War II, when nations sought a stable, secure haven for their reserves. The assumption was that the U.S. was a bastion of the rule of law, a place where property rights would be honored and global financial stability upheld.
That assumption is no longer valid. The U.S. is increasingly becoming a rogue superpower, and things may get worse before they get better.
President Trump has openly derided allies, attacked international agreements, and governed by personal vendetta rather than principle. He has imposed and rescinded tariffs on whims, abandoned trade treaties, and threatened economic allies as though they were geopolitical adversaries. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the European Union “was formed in order to screw the United States.”
He has also floated seizing the Panama Canal — including ordering the military to develop plans for U.S. military intervention — annexing Canada and Greenland, and using America’s financial leverage to punish nations that displease him. He is already in the process of dismantling the professional, non-partisan civil service, replacing career officials with personal loyalists — including in agencies that regulate global finance.
At the same time, America’s institutional checks have shown themselves weak and ineffective. The courts have failed to constrain him. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593 (2024), granted the president vast immunity, and the Court has increasingly favored the “unitary executive” theory (which, simply put, asserts that everyone in the executive branch works directly for the president). If he deems it useful, there is little reason to doubt that Trump could confiscate the gold reserves of foreign nations — or at the very least, use them as leverage — and every reason to doubt that U.S. institutions would effectively intervene.
Such actions, historically, are not without precedent. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the confiscation of gold from American citizens under the Emergency Banking Act. The U.S. has repeatedly frozen sovereign assets, notably Iranian assets following the 1979 revolution. More recently, in Trump’s first term, Venezuelan assets in the U.S. were frozen. Sovereign assets held in America have always been vulnerable to political expediency. History shows clearly that when political tensions rise, asset seizures become increasingly likely.
For any country still holding reserves at the New York Fed, this is a matter of national financial security; the risk is clear and present. Keeping gold in the U.S. as a safeguard against global instability was once prudent. But when the guardian becomes the threat, prudence demands immediate action.
Some might argue that attempting to move the gold will itself trigger confiscation — and that is a genuine risk. On the other hand, the Federal Reserve is currently independent, though for how much longer is uncertain. Thus, the sooner repatriation takes place — and the more discreetly — the better.
Repatriating gold reserves is not merely a financial decision — it is a powerful statement of sovereignty.
The time to move is now. The window to act is narrowing. With growing political unpredictability in Washington and increasing vulnerability of sovereign assets to unilateral U.S. actions, repatriating gold reserves has become more than prudent — it’s a necessity. If your country’s gold is still in New York, the most responsible step is clear: bring it home, and do it now.
