Donald Trump keeps banging on about the ‘autopen’ used under Joe Biden – and every other President for decades. Here’s what he’s talking about
What you need to know about why Donald Trump keeps talking about the ‘autopen’
- Donald Trump has signalled he will scrap all orders given by his predecessor Joe Biden that weren’t physically signed by his hand, claiming the “autopen” was used illegally. He claims – without providing any evidence – that this amounts to “92%” of the orders his predecessor and nemesis signed. It’s the latest in a long-running conspiracy theory spearheaded by the President and spread through his legion of supporters, despite having no basis in fact. Trump has even put up a picture of the ‘autopen’ device up in a run of presidential portraits at the White House instead of Biden’s picture.
- The autopen is a device that can copy a person’s signature and use it to sign documents – either for jobs that require a huge number of signatures, or for when the President is able to give an order but not physically present in order to sign it. This is totally normal and every President – including Donald Trump – has done it for decades.
- What Trump is claiming is that the decisions taken on which orders – and particularly Presidential pardons – to sign, was taken by people other than Biden, either because he was incapable of understanding the orders or because he was simply unaware that they were being made on his behalf. There is, to be clear, no evidence that any of Joe Biden’s Executive orders, memos or pardons were signed fraudulently or in any way illegally . While he was an elderly man, and his health was failing, there has been no credible suggestion whatsoever that he was incapable of understanding or legally giving orders.
- So why is Trump going after Biden’s orders like this? Well the main reason is that on Trump’s inauguration day, as pretty much his last job in office, Biden signed a raft of pre-emptive pardons for members of his family, for members of Congress who sat on the January 6th investigation committee, for Anthony Fauci – America’s Director of Infectious Diseases who devised the US Covid response and a number of other people that Biden feared Trump would target for revenge prosecutions once returning to office. And given he’s already tried to prosecute a string of his enemies, Biden was probably right to sign those pardons.
- The other reason is that Donald Trump hates losing. Joe Biden beat him fair and square in 2020, and he’s never really got over it. That’s why he keeps lying about the 2020 election being rigged. He’s convinced that he should have been President for those years. And winning again in 2024 isn’t enough, he wants to completely erase and delegitimise everything that happened in the White House after he left it.
- READ THE FULL STORY: 7 unhinged Donald Trump moments as he says he’ll tear up all of Joe Biden’s orders
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