Title: It's a Wartime Economy, Gold Will Be Used as America's WEAPON - Graham Summers Show: The Daniela Cambone Show (ITM Trading channel) Guest: Graham Summers (Chief Market Strategist, Phoenix Capital Research; Macroeconomics Fellow, Homeland Defense Institute) Date: 2026-09-16 URL: https://youtu.be/8-F9ZA0stFY Length: 17:08 Note: YouTube auto-transcript pasted by Stephen. Fillers (um/uh/you know) and stutters removed; auto-caption names corrected (Daniela Kon/Danella -> Daniela Cambone, Besson/Bess -> Bessent, Frank Gust/Juster -> Frank Giustra, Kirzakhstan -> Kyrgyzstan, Muldovan -> Moldovan, comx -> COMEX, dannyreport -> Daniela's report site); wording otherwise verbatim. The 06:50-07:30 segment is a host ad read.
00:00 Hi everyone, welcome back to the Daniela Cambone show. Look, we all know that something has shifted in how Washington talks about gold and almost nobody has noticed because it didn't happen in one headline. It actually happened in three. [music] First, the Treasury Secretary casually reminds the country the dollar used to be backed by silver, sometimes [music] gold.
00:24 Then he confirms on national television that every bar at Fort Knox is still there. Don't worry, over a trillion dollars at today's prices. [music] And he doesn't laugh the question off. Weeks later, he stands at the Treasury podium, launches a new sanctions campaign [music] against Iran, and quietly puts gold on the same list as crypto, aviation, and shipping.
00:42 Gold is no longer just a commodity. [music] Washington is now treating it like a strategic asset. Again, most investors are still looking the other way, and they're about to miss what's coming next, but my [music] next guest knows what's happening. He's in the room where it's all happening. Actually, Graham Summers, he's the chief market strategist [music] over at Phoenix Capital Research.
01:02 Graham, so good to have you back on. >> Lovely to be here. Thank you, Daniela. >> It sounds like a lot's happening behind the scenes, my friend. >> Yes. A lot of people have been thinking of gold strictly as an investment, and they're kind of missing the systemic shifts that are taking place.
01:19 We've gotten very clear signals from major policy makers that gold is no longer an inflation hedge. Gold is now both a weapon and its actual money. And this kind of process has been unfolding slowly in Washington starting around March of 2025. The first move, and this was actually critical, but a lot of people missed it, was that when President Trump signed Executive Order 14241, which was titled the immediate measures to increase American mineral production, he actually personally designated gold as a critical mineral.
01:52 Now, that's absolutely significant because it's indicating that based on the president's own thinking and his inner circle, gold is considered to be an asset that's vital to national security. Now, gold technically didn't actually qualify. So, the way these things work is Trump signs the executive order and then the United States Geological Survey actually implements that order.
02:17 But the problem was that the executive order and the Defense Production Act, which the president was invoking, gold technically doesn't follow as a critical mineral in the sense that we're not relying on it; we don't have to import a lot of it. We have plenty of gold within the country. But the key thing there, that's just kind of noise, that's legislative details.
02:37 The key thing for me that caught my attention was this is very interesting. You have the president personally stating that gold is a critical mineral in terms of national security. You follow that up with what you mentioned earlier, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent making these off-hand comments. And the key thing I want people to focus on there is those were unsolicited statements.
02:59 It's not like Jesse Watters from Fox News said to him, "Hey, at one point, was the dollar backed by gold?" No, he just offered that out of nowhere. So, that also was kind of a crumb that leads to this trail of crumbs for the final outcome, which was when Secretary Scott Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast.
03:19 He formally named gold as one of five sanctionable sectors. Now, what does this mean? This means that gold at the highest echelons of US national security is no longer just a hedge. The big argument for gold for the last 50 plus years since we got off the gold standard was you want to own gold because it's a hedge against dollar devaluation.
03:44 What I'm trying to bring people's attention to is that the most powerful individuals at the highest echelons of national security are saying no, gold is actually now an asset that's vital to the US's national security, that it is vital to our standing as the superpower of the world and that it's actually going to be weaponized in the sense that Iran, which has been using gold as a means of working around sanctions, is now a sanctionable asset that the Treasury is going to go after if it finds anyone trading with
04:18 Iran via the gold market. >> Wait a second. Few questions here. >> Yeah, of course. >> So, sanctionable even at the investor level? What does it mean for investors who own physical gold? >> Yeah, that's a great question. So, the very specific details are essentially this is going to increase compliance.
04:43 So any US person or entity, whether it's a corporation or a foreign regime, anybody who's caught doing a transaction that entails Iran, if they're using gold to do that, that gold can be frozen. So essentially, they're doing what's called blocking, which is they're freezing any gold or assets of a designated entity that is involved in US jurisdiction.
05:07 So you're talking vaults, refiners, COMEX-approved depositories. Those can be frozen by the US Treasury via its Office of Foreign Assets Control. So I had Frank Giustra on last week who was making the case that if he was a US investor, he wouldn't have his physical gold in the US right now. Unless you have it in your possession.
05:31 Would you not have it in a US vault or obviously not own paper gold? That's the question, >> but your physical gold? >> Well, they can't see. >> Of course, this is if you're doing something nefarious, right? >> Yeah. So, you have no concern if you're somebody who owns gold and you're just invested.
05:50 The point I'm trying to make is not that this poses some threat to investors. I'm trying to say, >> right, >> that people have been thinking, look, we're running the economy hot. We're running these big deficits. Central banks are buying gold by the thousands of tons. The point I'm trying to make is that there's actually what you could consider a tectonic shift >> and it's one in which gold is no longer just even an investment.
06:14 >> The fact that it's a sanctionable asset now means it's actually considered money. So what I'm trying to say is gold is now two things. One, it's a weaponized asset that the Treasury is going to use because they've realized that Iran's using things like gold and crypto to get around sanctions, but that's important because it's the Treasury designating it as this critical asset that they're monitoring.
06:39 And the other thing is that gold is now considered an asset that's vital to national security. So gold's now weaponized and gold's also officially money. It may not be backing the dollar, but officially it's being used for trade internationally, and the Treasury is recognizing it as such. >> We'll get right back to the interview, but this is an important moment to ask yourself, [music] when the next crisis hits, will you be properly positioned or wish you prepared earlier? I've spent over two decades reporting on global economic shifts, and [music] what's
07:11 happening now is unprecedented. In moments like this, timely decisions are critical. That's why we've put [music] together the private wealth playbook. It's a free guide showing you how to use gold and silver strategically for protection, privacy, and [music] long-term performance. Click below or visit the site
07:31 to download it now so you can move forward with clarity and confidence. Now, back to the show. Linking it back to the Dutch gold story. Is that why we saw the Dutch >> move their gold out of Canada and the US? I mean, they left some crumbs here, but I guess just like Frank Giustra says, you kind of leave your toothbrush in your ex-girlfriend's home just to still leave some trail, but >> right >> is that a movement we're going to see more of, to your point? >> Yeah. So, what's going on right now? And
08:04 again, I'm trying to get people to look at this through the perspective of national security. This is not investing. This is gold achieving a level of relevance and credibility that it hasn't had in decades for policy makers. The point is that we're now entering a regime of economic warfare and a big tell for this was when we seized $300 billion worth of Russian reserves in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
08:35 Russia got around that using crypto and gold, and that being such an aggressive thing, if you think about it, it's very intense, the United States says we're just going to take your money from another sovereign nation. It was right around that time that central banks globally started accelerating their gold purchases. So what that tells us is foreign regimes are aware that the US dollar system's been weaponized, that we're willing to
09:05 seize other countries' reserves, we're willing to kick them out of the SWIFT dollar system, and that's a problem for them. So they need workarounds. So they found gold. Well now the Treasury is saying we're fully aware you're doing that and whether it's crypto or gold or whatever, we're going to come after that as well.
09:22 So my point is simply people need to be realizing that gold is achieving this credibility in ways that it hasn't for decades. It's money. It's a weapon. It's a national security asset. These are conversations that people like you and I have fought for for the longest time, but it's now reached the highest echelons of the US financial system.
09:42 >> Graham, beautifully said, and so on the money with that statement. I know that you have been having conversations in Washington with people very close to this. I know you can't reveal much of those private conversations, but what would you want people at home to know and do and prepare? What should we be doing knowing the information you know? >> Well, I have to be very explicit.
10:16 What I say now is Graham Summers, chief market strategist, Phoenix Capital Research. This is not in any way representing the Homeland Defense Institute of which I'm the macroeconomics fellow, and nothing I'm saying is meant to represent the views of the US government. So I have to offer that disclaimer. Thank you.
10:30 What I'm trying to make very clear to people is that >> we're now in this, I guess you could call it, a wartime economy. It's a wartime economy in which Washington has realized that China is at least one if not two decades ahead of us in terms of critical minerals and it's all hands on deck trying to resolve that as rapidly as possible, and to that end you're seeing executive orders being signed.
11:02 You're seeing policy makers directly fast-track and invest directly in producers of critical minerals. You're also seeing large-scale purchases of equity and debt financing made by the Department of War. So, the Pentagon's actually running a $200 billion sovereign wealth fund that it's using to actually finance deals, many of which involve critical minerals.
11:26 But the key thing, I think of this in terms of tells, like tells in poker. The biggest tell to me is Donald Trump sits down and signs an executive order in which he wants to designate gold as an asset that's vital to national security, a critical mineral. No one has said that in 50 years in this country, and that's the president.
11:51 So even though the actual legislative apparatus that he was invoking to do that didn't hold up, >> that's a major tell. You throw in the fact that the Treasury Secretary is moving gold from being "hey, this is something you invest in against devaluation of the dollar" to "no, this is foremost, front and center, a weapon, it's money, it's a means through which we are going to sanction other countries, but it's also something vital to national security." We're looking at Fort Knox; regardless of whether or not you believe him, the
12:23 Treasury Secretary saying the gold's there, they don't say that publicly too often. All of these things add up to this monumental once-in-a-century shift that's taking place. Is this potentially laying the groundwork for a new kind of financial system that's related to gold being involved? I don't know.
12:42 No one's formally told me that. But all I can say is you connect the dots. It's very clear gold's being moved from the sidelines to front and center in terms of matters of national security, global trade, and economic warfare. >> Do you have any insights on what we're doing with stablecoins still and whether that will still be part of the new system? >> That's remarkable.
13:06 I just put out a note to clients all about crypto because crypto is the other area we're looking very much at right now. Crypto again was kind of like gold for a long time. It was something that was relegated to the sidelines. Libertarians loved it because they saw it as this escape from what they saw was a corrupt financial system.
13:25 I'm sure you noticed that when Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast, crypto was the first asset he listed. And actually, I'm trying to think how I can word this. Some filings were released from the intelligence community that revealed that Russia actually was going through a crypto exchange in, I believe, Kyrgyzstan that was financed by a Moldovan billionaire.
13:51 This is the same thing as gold. It's now being moved into the center of the United States financial system. They're clearly integrating stablecoins. Circle was given a US charter bank standing. >> And you see the GENIUS Act; the Treasury is implementing new policies through which you have until January 2027 to be licensed as a stablecoin issuer.
14:15 So, yes, you're dead on. You're noticing the chess pieces being moved around in the same way. Things are all being shifted. It's things that we've all been talking about for years. The most powerful financial insiders are saying, "Yes, that's correct, and we're acting on it."
14:33 >> Last point I just want to bring up about critical minerals, and this thing we're in with Canada right now. It's not healthy relations. Now, we know Canada has a lot of critical minerals. >> Yes. >> Why push Canada further away and not look for a way and say, "Look, you guys have a lot of critical minerals. We want them. We need them."
15:00 >> I can't tell you I have any details on the thinking behind that. It makes a lot of sense on paper. What we typically see, having studied the president and his framework for negotiating, he typically likes to start with a big ask. So he tries to anchor his negotiating opponents with something very extreme.
15:23 So let's say you have a building you want to sell for, I don't know, 100 million and I come in and say I'll buy it from you for 30. Immediately that anchors you on 30 even though it's absolutely nowhere near your original price. And then if I walk it back and say well I'll give you 40. I'll give you 50. I'll give you 60.
15:37 You feel as though you're gaining something in the negotiations even though I'm actually getting you to settle on a price much lower than you wanted. That's a framework the president used in commercial real estate for decades. It's something he's used in all of the trade agreements. A lot of people see it and think it's outrageous, but it's just how he does things.
15:55 My gut feeling is I think he's doing something similar with Canada in terms of trade negotiations and critical minerals. I think that he is probably just trying to really pressure them and then he'll start walking things back and eventually arrive at a deal that's very much in favor of the United States, but it's one that Canada wouldn't have agreed to initially on their own.
16:14 >> Graham Summers. He's in the room where it happens and I'm honored that he keeps coming back on my show to share what he can share with us. Thank you so much for your time today. >> Oh, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much, Daniela. >> And you promise you'll send me that email anytime you get new updates.
16:32 That's what he does. Graham is like, I got new stuff for you, Danny. Got to come back on. So, keep me updated. Okay. >> Anytime. Happy to. Thank you, Daniela. >> And thank you all for watching. We'll have more great content coming your way. Stay tuned.