Published On 29/11/2025
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Last update: 04:38 (Mecca time)
In a move that sparked widespread legal and political controversy, US President Donald Trump announced, yesterday, Friday, the cancellation of all executive orders and documents that were signed during the rule of his predecessor, Joe Biden, using the “automatic pen,” claiming that the vast majority of Biden’s decisions were not signed by him himself, and pointing out the illegality of these procedures.
Trump said in a series of posts on his social media platform, “Truth Social,” that about 92% of presidential documents during the Biden era “were signed with an automatic pen,” considering those documents “virtually canceled, no longer valid and without any effect.”
He also escalated his tone towards the former president, accusing him of not being involved in the signing process. Trump said, “Biden was not involved in the process of automatically signing the documents, and if he claimed that, he would be accused of giving false testimony.”
Trump explained in his blog posts, “I am now revoking all executive orders, and anything else that was not signed directly by Fraudster Joe Biden, because the people who used the pen did so illegally.”
He added, “The use of an automatic pen is not permitted unless approval is specifically given by the President of the United States.”
Trump often seeks to inflame anger over Biden’s alleged use of an automatic pen to sign pardons, executive orders and other documents, accusing his Democratic predecessor (82 years old) of suffering from dementia and thus being incapable of assuming power.
Trump believes that this matter allowed Biden’s employees to manage the White House and sign decisions on his behalf without his knowledge.
Trump’s move comes amid ambiguity surrounding its legality. According to American media, the “automatic pen” is not a strange tool in the White House, as it is used to copy signatures automatically.
The US Department of Justice issued a legal opinion in 2005 stating that the president does not need to sign legislation exclusively by hand, and that he can direct an official to put his signature using an automatic pen.
The New York Times also indicated in 2011 that former President Barack Obama was the first to sign legislation using this technology while he was in Europe.
Commenting on Trump’s announcement, conservative legal expert Ed Whelan said that the president “has full freedom to revoke executive orders whether Biden personally signs them or not.”
But he added that Trump does not have the same amount of freedom regarding “anything else” such as the laws passed by Congress, and the pardons that Biden gave directions to sign using the automatic pen.