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These statements have energized Republicans who’ve been sounding alarms for years about Biden’s alleged cognitive decline. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has repeatedly pointed to Biden’s reliance on staff and mechanical signatures as proof that the then-82-year-old president was not fully governing.
Comer previously argued that Biden’s “cognitive decline” was so severe that he didn’t even remember approving certain pardons. His claims have fueled concerns that the former president may not have been aware of major decisions being made under his own name.
Not surprisingly, Biden’s former aides have pushed back hard, insisting they never acted behind his back or made decisions without his involvement. But critics counter that numerous documents bearing autopen signatures only strengthen suspicions that Biden was detached from the day-to-day responsibilities of the Oval Office.
Mediaite reported that critics of Biden believe the sheer volume of autopen use demonstrates a deeper issue: that Biden wasn’t mentally present enough to sign documents himself. Biden, for his part, rejected all of it, insisting he was personally responsible for every action issued in his final days.
Autopens have been around longer than most Americans realize. The Shapell Manuscript Foundation notes that presidents have been relying on mechanical signatures going back more than 200 years. Thomas Jefferson reportedly used one as early as 1803 after the device was patented.
A number of presidents used autopens for routine tasks—Gerald Ford, Lyndon Johnson, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama among them. Obama even made history as the first president to sign a bill into law using an autopen in 2011. Years earlier, the Bush-era Justice Department declared that autopen signatures were legally sound, stating in a memo, “A person may sign a document by directing that his signature be affixed to it by another.”
Even so, Trump argues that presidents should personally sign anything significant. He told reporters earlier this year that he used the device “only for very unimportant papers,” adding that he receives mountains of letters needing acknowledgment but never used an autopen for decisions of consequence.
When he addressed Biden’s practice, Trump didn’t hold back. “But to sign pardons and all of the things that he signed with an autopen is disgraceful.”
Biden, meanwhile, dismissed Republican criticism, declaring in a July interview with The New York Times that GOP lawmakers are “liars” for suggesting he wasn’t aware of what he signed. “I made every decision,” Biden said.
The latest controversy comes as Trump moves aggressively on immigration policy. Following the tragic shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., Trump announced sweeping measures aimed at nations he describes as “third-world countries.”
On Truth Social, he argued that America’s progress has been undermined by Biden’s border failures, writing that “Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many,” as reported by RedState.
He then unveiled one of the boldest immigration proposals ever outlined by a modern president: a full halt to migration from developing nations. Trump stated he will “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
With both the autopen scandal and the immigration crisis now colliding, Trump has made one thing unmistakably clear: he intends to dismantle every trace of Biden’s presidency—down to the signature itself.
