President Donald Trump announced Friday that he intends to invalidate a wide range of actions taken during Joe Biden’s presidency that he claims were approved using an autopen rather than Biden’s own signature.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump alleged that roughly 92% of documents signed under Biden were executed with the device instead of being personally signed. He argued that the practice was improper in this case and questioned Biden’s control over his own presidency.
“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” Trump wrote, claiming that advisers “circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him.”
Trump said he is rescinding all executive orders and “anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden,” asserting that anyone who operated the autopen without Biden’s explicit authorization acted unlawfully.
An autopen is a mechanical device that holds a real pen and reproduces a person’s signature using a pre-set template, allowing documents to be signed quickly and with a high degree of consistency.
The U.S. government has relied on autopens since the Truman administration. The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel has previously concluded that the device may be used for presidential signatures on legislation and executive actions, provided the president authorizes its use.
Trump, however, claimed Biden did not personally approve the autopen signatures and warned that Biden could face a perjury charge if he later asserts that he did.
During Biden’s time in office, he signed 162 executive orders, along with hundreds of memoranda, proclamations and notices. Trump already signed an order in January revoking nearly 80 of those directives, but many others remain in place and, under his new declaration, could now be targeted for cancelation.
Among the actions that may be affected are:
- Executive Order 14087, aimed at lowering prescription drug costs in the United States
- Executive Order 14096, focused on environmental justice
- Executive Order 14110, addressing the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI)
Trump’s announcement raises practical questions about how such a review would be carried out. It remains unclear who would be responsible for determining which documents were signed by Biden personally and which were signed using an autopen.
