this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2026
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Shift in relations and unpredictability of Donald Trump make it ‘risky to store so much gold in the US’, say experts

Germany is facing calls to withdraw its billions of euros’ worth of gold from US vaults, spurred on by the shift in transatlantic relations and the unpredictability of Donald Trump.

Germany holds the world’s second biggest national gold reserves after the US, of which approximately €164bn (£122bn) worth – 1,236 tonnes – is stored in New York.

Emanuel Mönch, a leading economist and former head of research at Germany’s federal bank, the Bundesbank, called for the gold to be brought home, saying it was too “risky” for it to be kept in the US under the current administration.

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[–] herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 day ago

Friedrich Merz is too much of a coward to do anything remotely courageous like that.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

HAHAHA they still think its there. Wasn't it about a decade ago Germany wanted to see it and America said no.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"OUR GOLD, at this time of year, at this time of day, localized entirely to your vaults?"

"Yes!"

"Can I see it?"

"No."

[–] ogeist@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

And now!?!!?! Of all times, they should have done it on Biden's presidency. Does anyone believe Trump will just agree like that. The guy is going to use it as hostage.

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 60 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Is the USA collapsing in real time? Serious question. Denmark dumped treasury bonds, and then a Swedish pension fun dumped a billion of them, now the former research head of Germany Central Bank is saying physically move the gold to Germany

[–] gnutrino@programming.dev 54 points 1 day ago

Pretty much, yes. But don't worry, it's not like Trump passed massive tax cuts in his last term that have left the US over leveraged with >100% of GDP in debt and a $1.6T deficit or anything that leaves the US particularly vulnerable to bond sell offs.

Sorry, hang on a second, just getting some news through... Oh. Oh dear. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. Well, it was sort of OK for bits of it anyway.

[–] brooke592@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago

Is the USA collapsing in real time?

Yes, the spiral has been going on for awhile now.

[–] freebee@sh.itjust.works 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

By the time it actually happens there might be a democrat in charge again who can get all the blame...

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Bold of you to assume there will be future elections.

[–] freebee@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

That's why I wrote might

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[–] perestroika@slrpnk.net 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Denmark

Fortunately for the US, only a small Danish pension fund. Not the whole country. But one can guess that despite the event being small, people aren't clawing to have US treasury bonds.

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Swedish pension fun

I was in a band by that name. Mostly ABBA covers and very angry punk.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I think I saw a movie with that title a long time ago.

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[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago

Don’t forget about China selling their US bonds off, not too long ago, in what was a “yippy” move from the market.

[–] leavemealone@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That actually looks like a Speedrun to it honestly.

[–] entropicdrift@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 day ago

Seriously. Took Rome over a hundred years to have their Republic fall from when it started tumbling. We'll be lucky if it takes us 2 decades

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[–] Greddan@feddit.org 62 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The U.S is definitely gonna steal that gold

[–] notso@feddit.org 79 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Dear Friedrich:

Considering your Country decided not to join my Great Board of Peace, the greatest Global institition for Peace ever, I no longer feel any obligation to hand over your gold reserves, which by the way would look much better in my Ballroom anyway, which will be the most prestigious and BIGGEST Ballroom there ever was in History.

Germany cannot protect that Gold from Russia or China and there are no written documents, it's only that some guy with a funny accent delivered some gold a while ago and we kept it so why do you have a "right of ownership" anyway?

I have done more for Gold than any other person since it was invented, like thousands of years ago, and now, GOLD should do something for me.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

President DJT

[–] BlindPenguin@lemmy.world 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I hate how realistic that sounds

[–] zergtoshi@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Way too coherent and too little self-sidetracking to originate from Don Cheeto.

[–] MonkeMischief@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS IMPORTANT MATTER. Covfefe."

Covfefe? I haven’t heard that name in a long time.

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 26 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I want to see him try that. The moment he puts his filthy hands on someone else's gold, the dollar will collapse. No ifs, no buts, the moment he tries to steal part of the gold he has stored there, everyone will want their gold back and, while at it, they'll cash any bonds they have.

If you can't trust that country to mantain such important agreements, you can't trust it with anything. He'll bankrupt the country in no time.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 13 hours ago

You seem to be under the impression he care's about America or it's economy.

He only cares about appearances. If they have an opening where they can spin it to a positive, they will take all the gold.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it is hard to find now because of this storey but I swear there was a story about a decade ago that the US did not allow Germany to see their gold.

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[–] Dragomus@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The regime's been hinting at wanting to change the gold price to try and help the freefalling debt crisis...

They can (legally) simply revalue the gold in stock by declaring it to have a new arbitrary value, but hold a provision for international customers and declare they did not deposit in weight value but in gold value at the date of entry... which will rob them of any of the current price increase... So trump will tell Germany "you deposited $30 million before 1970, you get $30 million back from us now."

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[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That would blow up the world financial system, like actually. Not to say he wouldn't do it but that the consequences of doing so would be World historical in nature. I think he already borked European alliance. Greenland was a step too far and now they're serious about decoupling, and not to slowly either

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

EU itself has already done something similar to Russia, it's not some unthinkable act. I don't think it would be any more "world historical" from Trump then threatening to annex Greenland. It would be a shitshow for sure, though.

[–] coredev@programming.dev 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Can you please provide clarification and souce of your claims around EU and Russia.

[–] vane@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] crystalmerchant@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not only have we never seen your gold, Dear Leader is now several billion dollars' worth of gold richer. Coincidentally

[–] stylusmobilus@aussie.zone 2 points 1 day ago

Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they attempted to steal it.

[–] manxu@piefed.social 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The gold was kept in New York because of fears it might be seized by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. I guess Russia is not as problematic now as the former ally.

[–] scintilla@piefed.zip 23 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think its mostly that Russia has proved its just not a major threat. Yes Ukraine is getting weapons and funding from many other countries but the fact is if Russia had a fraction of the power we thought they did for a long time the qar would have been over before the aid even made it to the country.

[–] nickhammes@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Also the Soviet Union during the Cold War was much closer than Russia is today. Part of Germany was under Soviet control, and the Western capitol was Bonn, several hundred kilometers from the border. Modern Russia is a bit further than that, with a whole county between them.

[–] fort_burp@feddit.nl 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Good idea, but might have to come in like France did in 1971 (they rolled up to NY harbor in a destroyer). For some reason I don't think it'll work like it worked for de Gaulle.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

WTF happened in 1971‽‽

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Nixon fucked the world through the dollar.

In short, the world is paying the US to fuck around, since Bretton Woods replaced gold with the the USD, meaning that the US gets unlimited money while they get to spread their inflationary pressure around the world.

Charles de Gaulle, president of France at the time wasn't as stupid as most world leaders, and ended up preserving at least some semblance of fiscal independence by smuggling the French gold back from the US.

[–] fort_burp@feddit.nl 2 points 13 hours ago

One way of looking at it is that we literally cannot afford war. I mean moneywise. Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard in order to finance the Vietnam war, which the US lost in the military sense but won in the sense of the military industry making a whole lot of money. Literally more money than was even possible.

[–] k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 points 19 hours ago

Damn. Not just one interrobang, but two?

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Huh, TIL that Germany has such a big gold reserve - 75+% - and stores half of it abroad. Most of that half in the US 🤦

The Eurozone's gold reserves are much larger btw.

[–] Markie84@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago

Trump hid it particularly well. He melted down the gold bars to hang them as picture frames and other knick-knacks in the new ballroom. Thank you, Donald, for hiding the German gold so safely.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Everyone should do this. Trump has sticky fingers, and it is inevitable for them to wander to places unwanted.

[–] stylusmobilus@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago

Trump has sticky fingers

The country has sticky fingers.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 4 points 1 day ago

Can't. Got melted down for gold crappers

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 day ago
[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Well I'm sure the dollop of fermented meat in charge won't try something as someone takes back his favourite coloured metal

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