President Donald Trump announced on Friday he is terminating all documents allegedly signed by former President Joe Biden with the autopen.
In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed 92% of documents signed during Biden’s presidency were done so with the device.
“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” Trump wrote. “The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him.”
Trump said he is canceling all executive orders and “anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally.”
The autopen device, which holds a real pen and signs paper using a handwriting template, automatically reproduces a person’s signature with high accuracy.
The U.S. government has used autopens since the Truman administration, and the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel previously confirmed use of the device is legal for presidential signatures on legislation and executive acts, so long as it is authorized by the president.
However, Trump claimed Biden did not approve the signatures, and threatened to charge him with perjury if he says he was involved in the autopen process.
During Biden’s presidency, he signed 162 executive orders, in addition to hundreds of memoranda, proclamations and notices.
Though Trump signed an executive order in January rescinding nearly 80 Biden-era executive orders, some of those that appear to remain in full force, and may now be subject to cancelation, include: Executive Order 14087, which lowers prescription drug costs in the U.S.; Executive Order 14096, which centers around environmental justice; and Executive Order 14110, which cracks down on the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI).
