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President Trump moved boldly this week to strip legal force from executive documents he says were signed by Joe Biden using an autopen, announcing that any order not personally signed by Biden is “terminated.” The declaration, posted on Trump’s social media, even included a warning that if Biden claims he personally authorized those signatures he could face perjury charges — a confrontational step that has conservatives cheering and Democrats sputtering.
For readers who aren’t familiar, an autopen is a long-standing device that reproduces a person’s signature and has been used by presidents for decades to handle routine paperwork. Legal opinions have long allowed its use when a president directs staff to operate it, but the optics of the machine being used to rubber-stamp major policy have fueled a fierce political debate.
Mr. Trump’s post went further, claiming roughly 92 percent of Biden’s actions were autopen-signed and accusing Biden aides of taking control of the presidency, a charge that has been picked up across conservative circles. The president’s language was blistering and personal — he called the past administration’s process illegal and said Biden would be prosecuted if he lied under oath about his involvement.
Legal scholars and commentators have pointed out the nuance: autopen use has precedent and many routine executive acts can be revoked by a successor, but not everything is reversible — clemency decisions and some other acts are much harder, if not impossible, to unwind. That reality won’t stop the political fight, and it won’t stop conservatives from pushing the message that if the autopen was abused, accountability is necessary.
Republican lawmakers and conservative watchdogs have seized on the move as long-overdue scrutiny of the Biden years, with House investigators and allies arguing the American people deserve answers about who was actually running the executive branch. Fox hosts and guests framed the revocation as a restoration of presidential responsibility, arguing it’s a patriotic act to reclaim the office from a shadow bureaucracy.
To everyday Americans worried about lawlessness and unilateral rule from unelected staffers, Trump’s action reads like common-sense housekeeping after a chaotic administration. Conservatives see this as more than petty revenge — it’s a fight over whether the presidency answers to the people or to a permanent managerial class that signs papers on behalf of a weak chief executive.
There will be court battles, media howls, and endless political theater, but patriots should demand two things: transparency about how and why the autopen was used, and firm accountability if laws were broken. The country deserves a functioning, accountable executive — and if exposing autopen abuses helps restore that, then conservatives should stand behind the effort until the truth comes out.
