President Trump announced a sweeping move this week: he declared that every executive order and similar action signed by Joe Biden using an autopen is “terminated” and of no further force. This bold step confronts what Trump and his allies say was a shadow-government practice that effectively sidelined the elected president and clogged the federal register with illegal or unauthorized actions.
In a Truth Social post the president even put a number on it, saying roughly 92 percent of Biden’s documents bore autopen signatures and therefore lack legitimacy unless proven otherwise. That claim is explosive and intentional — it frames the issue not as partisan grumbling but as a systemic seizure of authority by unelected aides around the Oval Office.
Trump didn’t stop at rescission; he went further and threatened perjury charges if Joe Biden claims he personally authorized autopen use on key orders. For those who have watched the last administration flounder, this isn’t mere rhetoric — it’s a demand for accountability and a reminder that no official, including a former president, should be immune from scrutiny.
Critics and legal experts will howl that autopens have precedent and that presidents have long used mechanical signatures for routine paperwork. That may be true for benign paperwork, but conservatives are right to draw the line when autopen use is alleged for consequential executive orders, pardons, and policy shifts made without clear presidential assent. The debate will land in courts, and perhaps even the Supreme Court, where the question of legitimacy and separation of powers must be settled.
Republican lawmakers and oversight groups have cheered the move, arguing that Washington’s permanent bureaucrats cannot be allowed to convert the presidency into a rubber-stamp office. This is about restoring the constitutional chain of command, returning decision-making to the person voters chose, and stopping the bureaucratic rot that corrodes public trust in both parties.
Americans who value transparency and rule of law should watch this fight closely and demand evidence for every controversial action taken in the last administration. If the Left insists that backroom signatures carry the same weight as a president’s own hand, they will have to prove it in public and under oath — something every patriotic citizen should welcome. The country deserves leaders who answer to the people, not to a hidden clique signing away liberties behind the Resolute Desk.
