{"id":315678,"date":"2025-11-29T03:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315678\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T03:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T03:54:09","slug":"what-is-an-autopen-and-why-cant-trump-stop-talking-about-it-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315678\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an autopen and why can\u2019t Trump stop talking about it? | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, Donald Trump<\/a> claimed that he will reverse everything that Joe Biden has signed with an autopen.<\/p>\n

The automated signature machine has been a tool used by presidents at the White House for decades.<\/p>\n

Here is what it is, what we know about Biden\u2019s use and why Trump continuously brings it up.<\/p>\n

What is an autopen? <\/p>\n

The autopen, which was patented in the US in 1803<\/a>, is a robotic device that replicates signatures of a person using real ink. The autopen is often used to sign materials in bulk.<\/p>\n

According to<\/a> a 2005 guidance from the justice department, the \u201cpresident need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Instead, the president \u201cmay sign a bill \u2026 by directing a subordinate to affix the president\u2019s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Have other presidents used it?<\/p>\n

Yes, numerous presidents have used the autopen, dating back to Thomas Jefferson, who used an early version<\/a> of the device, according to the Shappell Manuscript Foundation. Harry Truman was rumoured to have used the pen, as well as Gerald Ford and Lyndon B Johnson, who allowed the device to be photographed in the White House.<\/p>\n

Other presidents include John F Kennedy as well as Barack Obama, who used the device <\/a>to sign various legislation including the Patriot Act and an appropriations bill while overseas.<\/p>\n

In March, Trump said he had also used<\/a> the autopen for what he described as \u201cvery unimportant papers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Veterans Bureau director Colonel Ijams watching a disbursement officer sign cheques for veterans using a \u2018multiple signing machine\u2019 \u2013 an early version of today\u2019s autopen \u2013 in 1931. Photograph: Underwood Archives, Inc\/AlamyWhat do we know about Biden\u2019s use of autopen? <\/p>\n

Trump has claimed on his Truth Social platform that the autopen was operated by other people without Biden\u2019s approval, making \u201capproximately 92%\u201d of his executive orders invalid, but there is no evidence of the extent of Biden\u2019s autopen use in office.<\/p>\n

A Republican-led oversight committee released a report in October on Biden\u2019s use of the autopen that made many sweeping claims but did not include any concrete evidence that aides conspired to enact policies without Biden\u2019s knowledge or that he was unaware of laws, pardons or executive orders signed in his name. Democrats on the committee denounced the report as a \u201csham\u201d.<\/p>\n

Biden has defended his autopen use, telling the New York Times<\/a> in March that \u201cI made every decision\u201d and that he directed his staff to use an autopen on clemency warrants because \u201cwe\u2019re talking about a whole lot of people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Why does Trump keep bringing this up? <\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s use of the autopen has been a favourite attack of Trump for a while. In March, Trump claimed without evidence that Biden\u2019s pardons were \u201cvoid, vacant and of no further force and effect\u201d because they were signed with an autopen. Throughout his campaign trail and into his presidency, Trump has also repeatedly claimed that Biden\u2019s cognitive state hindered his presidential duties.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Trump hung a photo of an autopen<\/a> instead of Biden in the White House\u2019s new presidential gallery.<\/p>\n

The autopen claim has been heavily pushed by the Oversight Project, an extension of the Trump-allied rightwing thinktank Heritage Foundation, which released a report into Biden\u2019s autopen use. \u201cWhoever controlled the autopen controlled the presidency,\u201d it claimed<\/a> in a post earlier this year. However, the report did not include any evidence that Biden\u2019s aides conspired to implement policies without his approvals.<\/p>\n

Joe Biden\u2019s signature is displayed in place of his portrait at the White House. Photograph: Ken Cedeno\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, following Trump\u2019s announcement on Friday, the Oversight Project hailed the president, saying:<\/a> \u201cWe will follow up with the relevant authorities to identify what fraudulent documents are still being treated with legal effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can Trump actually do what he is threatening? <\/p>\n

It remains unclear how Trump plans to undo the majority of Biden\u2019s decisions, although presidents are legally allowed to reverse executive orders signed by their predecessors. However, the president does not have authority to overturn his predecessor\u2019s pardons, according to<\/a> legal scholars who point to the constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, Donald Trump claimed that he will reverse everything that Joe Biden has signed with an autopen.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-315678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}