 "Joe Biden and Donald Trump during the presidential debate last year. Trump has repeatedly questioned Biden's health, alleging that Democrats covered up his mental and physical decline. File image/Reuters")
US President Donald Trump has said that he will cancel most executive orders signed by his predecessor, Joe Biden, as he claimed that “left lunatics circling around” the former president officiated those documents using an autopen.
Trump said on Truth Social that Biden had not signed the orders himself and that “the radical left lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him” by signing his name using an autopen.
“The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United States,” adding that “approximately 92 per cent” of such orders are, therefore, “invalid.”
“Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury,” Trump added.
Trump has repeatedly asserted that Biden was mentally incapable by the end of his presidency and not personally directing key decisions. He has also frequently alleged, without offering evidence, that officials in the Biden administration may have used an autopen to replicate the president’s signature and carried out major actions without his knowledge.
Trump has also been sceptical about the validity of pardons and orders signed by Biden during his presidency over the use of an autopen, despite the device being used by several presidents to sign key documents.
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Congressman James Comer, the Republican chair of the GOP-led House oversight committee, said, “I applaud President Trump for deeming President Biden’s autopen actions NULL AND VOID.”
Meanwhile, Oversight Project, a branch of the conservative Heritage Foundation, started in 2022 with a mission of “increasing aggressive oversight of the Biden administration”, which has pushed Trump’s agenda, also welcomed Trump’s announcement saying, “Thank you President Trump for taking our historic Autopen investigation and findings seriously and ordering your Administration to take action.”
In October, the oversight committee issued a report on Biden’s use of the autopen, making broad allegations but offering no solid evidence that staff secretly implemented policies without his approval or that he was unaware of the laws, pardons, or executive orders bearing his signature.