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Fogedaboudit, this scenario is far more likely to play out under a conservative Republican administration.
When the U.S. and other major currencies moved from the gold standard to the dollar standard (starting in 1958), this is not an issue. I doubt we'll be moving back to the gold standard - at least not under the current Administration.

Also, there were two primary reasons for gold confiscation:

Number one, the most obvious, is to get the gold!
Number two is alot more subtle. As long as gold was in circulation as legal tender, then it in a sense “competed” with FRN’s. Government was restricted in the amout of FRN’s they could print, because to print too many would mean they would devalue vis-a-vis gold.

So by removing the only widely recognized “money” that FRN’s could be compared to, the window was open for government to print as many of them as they wanted.
As many of them as they wanted.

I doubt confiscation will happen again. I would be surprised if five out of a hundred Americans own any gold, besides jewelry.

One in a hundred might have a five dollar gold piece that there grandfather left for them. It would be way, way too much trouble for government to try to take it. And J6P AIN’T GONNA BE HAPPY if the guv can give HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS to the banks for their parties and bonuses and Lexuses but knocks on his door and demands any gold the guys got!

If the guv tries to seize the ETF’s that would make you wonder.

I wouldn’t forget about it.

The way confiscation would come about would be if the dollar crashed and a small minority of gold holders (and speculators) were spectacularly successful (in crashed nominal dollar terms) at maintaining their purchasing power. The government would happily confiscate it to score points with the jealous, and this shows there is precedent. It wouldn’t have to be because of a return to the gold standard.

Roosevelt set up the confiscation at at time when generally the law was more respected, so there’d be no compunctions about doing it now. Note that the states of emergency, once declared, lived on virtually forever. ALso, I find it interesting that JFK outlawed gold posession by American citizens anywhere in the world outside of American boundaries in 1962. All contracts involving gold payment were abrogated (bye bye commodity hedges and gold ETFs).

No, we’re not going on a gold standard soon, but never underestimate the increasing mendacity of the government in money matters.