President Donald Trump said Thursday that former President Joe Biden’s use of an autopen to sign executive actions was “disrespectful to our country,” but suggested his predecessor may not have been aware of the use of his automated signature.
Trump has consistently raised concerns about Biden’s health decline and whether his aides were really in charge of the White House. On Wednesday, he backed an expanded Department of Justice investigation into the legality of Biden’s use of an autopen to sign documents, including pardons.
“I don’t think Biden would know whether or not he signed it,” Trump remarked when asked to comment on the investigation.
Though he declined to provide specific evidence of illegality or a health cover-up, Trump said “radical Left lunatics” were using the autopen in Biden’s name, and his own “human mind” deduced Biden was unfit.
“I was in a debate with the human mind, and I didn’t think he knew what the hell he was doing,” Trump said in reference to the 2024 debate between Trump and Biden, in which Biden had numerous lapses.
The president said he believed using an autopen, technology frequently employed by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, should be reserved for correspondence between the White House and voters.
“You always sign important documents. Usually, when they put documents in front of you, they’re important, even if you’re signing ambassadorships,” Trump remarked when asked to comment on the investigation during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. ” … I think you really deserve that … deserve to get a real signature, not an autopen signature.”
Trump further said Biden’s use of an autopen suggests that he was not making policy decisions during his administration.
“I’m sure that he didn’t know many of the things. Look, he was never for open borders. He was never for transgender for everybody. He was never for men playing in women’s sports,” Trump said. “He changed all of these things that changed so radically. I don’t think he had any idea what was — frankly, I said it during the debate, and I say it now — he didn’t have much of an idea what was going on.”
“Whoever used the auto pen was the president, and that is wrong. It’s illegal, so bad, and it’s so disrespectful to our country,” Trump concluded.
Biden has maintained he was in charge and that Trump is just looking for a distraction.
“Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency,” Biden told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false.”
TRUMP 2.0 TAKES DECISIVE JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS ROLE AMID FRUSTRATIONS WITH SUPREME COURT JUSTICES
You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.
