Going Dutch: Netherlands pulls 79 tonnes of gold out of Trump’s reach

[WASHINGTON] Our NATO ally the Netherlands reduced its gold held at the Federal Reserve of New York from 31.3 percent of its 612.4-tonne gold reserve to 18.5 percent, so that in case of an emergency their gold was closer to home in London in an operation that ended in August.

In international trading, gold is measured in “tonnes,” which are so-called metric tons, not the U.S. ton, which is 2,000 pounds. One tonne is 1,000 kilograms or 2,204.62 pounds.

The move is another sign that the Bretton Woods economic system established after World War II is breaking down. That system gave America primacy, because the U.S. backed the world economic order with its military, wealth and complete safety of the Continental U.S.

Seems the Dutch are sceptical.

In its official statement, De Nederandsche Bank said: “In view of increasing geopolitical unrest, DNB is strengthening its crisis preparedness.”

Olaf Sleijpen, a DNG governor, said: “We expect that we will never need to use them, but we do need to strengthen our resilience.”

The whispers are that the Dutch are concerned that there was a disagreement with President Donald J. Trump, the president would seize the gold.

Klaus Knot, who led the Dutch central bank in 2025 came close to saying the whisper out loud.

“At the same time, the post-war Atlantic security situation seems to have been thrown out of balance due to tensions between the United States and Europe, leading to a need in Europe to invest heavily in defence to ensure our security,” Knot said.

In April, the Dutch government released an official foreign policy paper that made the case that U.S. relations had taken a bad turn in the areas of defense, software and critical raw materials.

As always there is a problem with Red China, because the Dutch chipmaker ASML insists on selling its chips to the PRC, while Washington wants America’s allies to fall in line with whatever restrictions the federal government puts on U.S. firms.

China is one-third of ASML’s sales, so Europe’s most valuable company has a reason to be anxious, especially when selling chips to China was once considered the right thing to do.

“The position of the U.S has changed, and against that backdrop we will reduce one-sided dependencies and continue working to strengthen the transatlantic relationship,” the paper said.

The Dutch have a gold reserve of roughly $87 billion, compared to the U.S. gold reserve of 8,133.5 tonnes, roughly $1.5 trillion. Fort Knox, Kentucky, holds 56 percent of the U.S. hoard, with 21 percent held at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and the rest at the Denver Mint, 17 percent and the Federal Reserve of New York, 5 percent.

In the scheme of things, it should not matter where someone’s gold is held. In fact, it is the practice of the New York Fed to keep the gold bars on pallets and simply move the gold to and from 122 different compartments assigned to the holders.

The move by the Dutch was fairly dramatic, but it is dwarfed by the French moving of 129-tonnes from the New York Federal Reserve to Paris. This $15 billion operation meant that as of January, when the transfer was complete, France held no gold in the U.S.

No one is suggesting that moving the Dutch gold of American custody means there is going to be a divorce, but it is absolutely consistent with pre-divorce behavior.