President Donald Trump moved on Friday to cancel every Biden-era executive order and document that was signed using autopen technology. The president said the practice was illegitimate and used to cover up Biden’s inability to perform the duties of the office.
Trump announced the reversal on Truth Social, stating that documents signed by former President Joe Biden through autopen were never valid to begin with and should have no authority moving forward.
The president said that Biden used the autopen for roughly “92 percent” of his signatures. He argued that the device was operated by aides who took advantage of Biden’s cognitive decline and ran the government without his oversight.
Trump wrote that the autopen is only permitted when the president personally approves its use. He said Biden never gave such approval because he was not capable of overseeing the process.
The president added that anyone claiming Biden signed off on autopen operations would face charges of perjury. He said the entire system had been run illegally by what he described as radical staff surrounding Biden.
The controversy around Biden’s autograph device has fueled congressional investigations. Republicans and the Trump administration have spent months gathering records tied to Biden’s signing practices.
Reports in July said investigators were reviewing more than one million documents from the Biden presidency. The stated goal has been to determine who was truly in control of the office during Biden’s time in Washington.
Officials working under President Trump have said from the start that restoring accountability to the presidential signature process was a major priority. They said the president’s signature carries enormous weight and must be treated accordingly.
An autopen is a device designed to replicate a signature without the signer physically present, as Trending Politics reported.
While it is allowed in limited circumstances, critics argue that Biden’s use of the machine crossed legal and ethical lines because there was no clear oversight.
A report from the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project found that every document with Biden’s name on it, except his withdrawal letter from the 2024 race, appeared to be signed by the autopen. Trump officials said this finding raised serious concerns about whether unelected aides made decisions for the former president.
The autopen revelations have revived questions about Biden’s mental state during his final years in office. Trump’s team has said the evidence shows Biden was not running the White House.
During his final days before leaving office, Biden issued a wave of controversial pardons. Many of them were issued preemptively to figures he believed the Trump Justice Department would investigate.
Biden granted pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and members of the January 6 Committee. He said they were in danger of “political targeting,” despite accusations that each had violated federal law.
The Trump administration has argued that Biden’s pardons, combined with the autopen scandal, prove that his presidency was controlled by staff rather than by Biden himself.
