Donald Trump has aggressively declared his intention to reverse all executive orders and other documents signed by President Joe Biden using an autopen, claiming such actions were illegitimate and unauthorized. Speaking on Truth Social, Trump stated, "I am hereby 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." He further suggested that if Biden claimed involvement in the autopen process, he would face perjury charges, escalating a long-standing battle over the legitimacy of the current administration's actions.

The autopen, a robotic device patented in the U.S. in 1803, is designed to replicate a person's signature using real ink and is frequently employed for signing materials in bulk. Its use by presidents is not unprecedented; a 2005 Justice Department guidance clarifies that a president "need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law." Instead, a president "may sign a bill … by directing a subordinate to affix the president’s signature to such a bill, for example by autopen." Historically, numerous presidents have utilized the device, from Thomas Jefferson who used an early version, to Harry Truman, Gerald Ford, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama, who notably used it to sign legislation like the Patriot Act while overseas. Even Trump himself admitted to employing an autopen for "very unimportant papers."

Despite the historical precedent and legal allowances, Trump has continuously alleged that Biden's autopen use was operated by others without his explicit approval, rendering "approximately 92%" of his executive orders invalid. He has claimed Biden's pardons, in particular, were "void, vacant and of no further force and effect." However, there is no concrete evidence supporting the extent of Trump’s claims regarding unauthorized autopen use or a lack of presidential awareness. Biden has directly defended his actions, telling the New York Times in March that "I made every decision" and that he specifically directed staff to use the autopen for clemency warrants due to the large volume of people involved.

The issue gained significant traction with a Republican-led oversight committee's report in October, which made numerous sweeping claims about Biden’s autopen use. While the report criticized a "flawed process" akin to a "presidential pardon game of telephone" within the Biden Whitehouse and alleged a "cover-up of the president's diminishing faculties," it failed to present concrete evidence that aides conspired to enact policies without Biden’s knowledge or that he was unaware of laws, pardons, or executive orders signed in his name. Democrats on the committee swiftly denounced the report as a "sham."

Among the most controversial autopen-signed actions highlighted by Trump and the GOP report were pardons granted to Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, members of the January 6 committee, and notably, several Biden family members including James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden, reportedly issued on his last full day in office. Interestingly, the pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, a recovering cocaine addict, was hand-signed. The oversight committee’s investigation depicted a "lax" and opaque structure, with "clemency actions taken in the final days of the Biden presidency" being called "most flagrant." For instance, ex-White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients admitted that not all presidential decisions were formally documented. In one case, a Zients aide, Rosa Po, communicated pardons second-hand to Zients, who then "verbally authorized the use of the autopen from home" without verifying directly with Biden. Due to these concerns regarding the president's mental state and the approval process, the committee deemed all autopen-signed executive actions without direct written presidential consent to be invalid. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s team is now reportedly reviewing the Biden administration's reported use of autopen for pardons.

Trump’s persistent focus on Biden’s autopen use is a central element of his campaign, often linked to broader claims about Biden’s cognitive state hindering his presidential duties. This was visually underscored when Trump replaced Biden's portrait with an autopen photo in the White House’s new presidential gallery. The narrative has been heavily amplified by the Oversight Project, an extension of the Trump-allied Heritage Foundation, which controversially claimed, "Whoever controlled the autopen controlled the presidency." However, the report from the Oversight Project also lacked evidence of aides conspiring against presidential approval. While presidents are legally empowered to reverse executive orders signed by their predecessors, legal scholars and constitutional experts concur that a president does not possess the authority to overturn previously granted pardons, regardless of how they were signed.