In a social media post on Friday, Republican Trump speculated that most of Biden’s orders were executed with an Autopen, a machine that copies a given signature.
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“Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with an Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, has been extinguished, and has no further force or effect,” Trump wrote.
Trump has long said that Biden — who was 82 when he left office in January — was no longer in control of the executive office because of his advancing age and declining mental condition.
The Republican leader, himself 79, reiterated that message in a Friday post and threatened to sue Biden if Democrats refused.
Trump said, “I am hereby rescinding all executive orders, and anything else that was not signed directly by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people operating the AutoPen did so illegally.”
“Joe Biden was not involved in the AutoPen process and, if he says he was involved, he would be charged with perjury.”
Autopens and similar mechanical signature devices have a long history in the White House, stretching back to Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, in the early 19th century. Trump himself has used this tool, particularly during his first term.
But Trump has had a sour relationship with his Democratic predecessors, including Biden and former President Barack Obama.
He has especially trolled Biden for his age and his use of AutoPen while in office. After establishing a “Presidential Walk of Fame” near the White House Rose Garden earlier this year, Trump replaced Biden’s portrait with a picture of the mechanical device.
He recently showed the photo to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a visit this month.
Biden and Trump faced off twice in presidential elections: once in 2020, when Trump lost, and once in 2024, when Biden dropped out of the race. Trump ultimately won the latter.
He has also consistently denied his defeat in the 2020 election, falsely claiming widespread voter fraud.
Trump has made other misleading and baseless statements about Biden, including that White House staffers took advantage of the Democrat’s declining age to sign policy documents without his knowledge.
However, there is no definitive evidence that AutoPen was used under Biden without his consent. Biden himself denied the allegation in a June statement.
“Let me be clear: I made decisions during my presidency,” he wrote. “I made decisions about pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion I did not make them is ridiculous and false.”
Still, Trump revisited that accusation in a Friday message on his platform Truth Social.
“The radical leftist lunatics who surrounded Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took away the presidency from him,” the Republican leader wrote.
Friday’s announcement is the latest effort by Trump to delegitimize the actions of his political rivals.
For example, in March, Trump posted a Truth Social message attempting to invalidate a pardon issued by Biden before his departure from the White House.
Biden controversially granted “preemptive” pardons to politicians who were on the House select committee investigating Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, when his supporters attacked the US Capitol.
“The ‘pardons’ granted by Sleepy Joe Biden to the Unselected Committee of Political Thugs and many others are hereby declared null, void, and of no additional force or effect, because they were made by Autopen,” Trump wrote in March, repeating familiar claims.
“Joe Biden didn’t sign them but, more importantly, he didn’t know anything about them!”
Legal experts at the time largely dismissed the president’s pardons as unconstitutional, as U.S. law does not require presidential pardons to be signed in any way – or even to be written.
A 2005 memorandum from the US Office of Legal Counsel also states, “The President is not required to personally perform the physical act of placing his signature on a bill that he approves and decides to sign for the bill to become law.”
It states that the law considers using the Autopen to “affix the President’s signature” – or “directing a subordinate” to do so – is considered acceptable.
Nevertheless, Biden faced significant public concern about whether his age hindered his ability to fulfill his duties, especially in the final years of his four-year term.
A disastrous performance in the June 2024 presidential debate heightened those concerns, as Biden appeared stiff and struggled to maintain his views.
Members of the Democratic Party then pressured Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race, a step he ultimately took in July of that year.
Some critics have speculated whether Biden’s age has reduced his ability to devote time and attention to areas such as foreign policy, giving senior staff members greater influence over policymaking.
This year, Biden revealed that he has advanced prostate cancer, and is currently undergoing radiation therapy.
Should Trump serve his second term, he would also be 82, a few months older than Biden was at the end of his presidency. Age and mental health concerns have also affected Trump’s time in the White House.
This week, The New York Times published an article titled, “Shorter days, signs of fatigue: Trump faces the realities of aging in office”. It details instances where Trump appeared to sleep during public appearances and explains how Trump has limited public appearances during his second term.
Trump responded to the news on social media by calling the female reporter “ugly” and posting that she had “passed” her physical and cognitive exams.
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