'Document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with autopen': Trump declares Biden-era documents 'terminated'

 

President Donald Trump escalated his campaign to dismantle Biden-era decisions on Nov. 28, declaring on Truth Social that any document signed by former President Joe Biden using autopen technology is “invalid.” The post, framed as a sweeping cancellation of Biden’s actions, signals a possible new front in Trump’s effort to reverse his predecessor’s executive legacy.

“Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect,” Trump wrote.

While statements on social media carry no legal force, the declaration raised the possibility that Trump could later refuse to enforce a Biden-era executive order. It also reinforced his broader strategy of casting Biden as detached from White House decision-making—an accusation the former president has repeatedly denied.

Trump has mocked Biden’s autopen use before, even swapping Biden’s portrait for an image of the device during his return to the Oval Office. His latest remarks revisit a long-running argument over a tool presidents of both parties have used for more than a century.

What is an autopen?

An autopen is a machine that signs documents in real ink, replicating the user’s actual signature. Presidents, including Gerald Ford, Lyndon B. Johnson, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Trump himself, have relied on it to manage the thousands of letters their offices handle. Obama became the first president to use an autopen to sign legislation in 2011.

Autopen use is legal. A 2005 Justice Department memo under Bush found: “A person may sign a document by directing that his signature be affixed to it by another.” Legal scholars have also noted that the Constitution does not require presidents to personally sign pardons.

Trump nevertheless suggested Biden may not have known what he was approving. “The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” he wrote, accusing “Radical Left Lunatics” of operating the device without authorization. “I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden… Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury.”

He made similar allegations in June, prompting the Republican-led House Oversight Committee to recommend a Justice Department investigation in late October. The White House, asked how Biden’s orders being “terminated” would be implemented, pointed reporters back to Trump’s post.

Trump has acknowledged using an autopen himself, telling reporters in March that he deployed it “only for very unimportant papers.” He contrasted that with Biden’s use on pardons, calling it “disgraceful.” Pardons cannot be reversed, yet Trump has insisted that those issued by Biden—including preemptive pardons for his son Hunter and brother James, are “null and void.”

Biden has rejected those claims. In a July interview with The New York Times, he called Republicans “liars” for alleging he was unaware of documents signed via autopen. “I made every decision,” he said.

Under US law, a president must issue an actual executive order, not a social media post, to revoke a previous one. And pardons are constitutionally final. But Trump’s latest broadside underscores his intent to reopen fights over Biden’s final acts in office, particularly those shielding the Biden family from future prosecution by a Trump-led Justice Department.