Trump is laying the hammer down. And that’s bad news for the Left.
And Donald Trump pushes new rules that has Democrats seeing ghosts.
In a move signaling heightened control, President Trump’s White House team has rolled out strict new guidelines for using his autopen signature, a mechanical tool that replicates a leader’s handwritten mark. This comes as aides from former President Joe Biden’s administration grapple with questions about whether some staff overstepped their roles by freely deploying the device during his final months in office.
A document recently uncovered by the New York Post reveals the tight limits now placed on when Trump’s signature can be mechanically applied. The policy shift follows a stir sparked by a Heritage Foundation report examining Biden’s signatures on various documents, including controversial last-minute pardons. The analysis has fueled debate over the autopen’s role in government.
Under both Biden and Trump, a select handful of officials have held the power to authorize robotic signatures. But at 82, Biden’s apparent mental decline late in his term has raised eyebrows about whether aides might have acted on their own assumptions rather than his direct orders.
One Biden White House insider told the New York Post they suspect a senior aide—whose name is withheld due to conflicting accounts and lack of hard proof—may have independently decided what got signed.
This staffer, who didn’t respond to inquiries, often cited “the boss” when issuing directives, leaving colleagues unsure if Biden was truly consulted. “No one ever questioned [the staffer]. Period,” the source said, describing an environment where fear stifled pushback. “To me, [the staffer] basically was the president.”
The insider added, “Everyone” harbored doubts about this aide overreaching, yet no one dared voice it. “I think [the aide] was using the autopen as standard and past protocol,” they said, pointing to a murky line between Biden’s intent and the aide’s actions. A second source echoed this, noting the aide seemed to issue commands without clear evidence of Biden’s involvement.
Not everyone agrees. Several ex-staffers, some openly critical of Biden’s inner circle in the past, dismissed the claims as far-fetched. One recalled Biden’s hands-on style early in his term, saying he’d “demand to see the most mundane statements” from the press office. Another labeled the whole narrative “bulls–t,” calling it “embarrassing” for Trump’s camp to amplify.
Legal expert Mike Davis, a key Trump adviser, weighed in, telling the New York Post that context is everything. “If they’re carrying out the president’s will, it doesn’t seem like an issue. If they’re not carrying out the president’s will, it’s a huge issue—it’s criminal,” he said, citing potential charges like forgery or fraud. “If an authorized autopen operator is using the autopen on a particular document against the president’s will, it’s clearly not valid.”
Trump’s team isn’t taking chances. A memo penned Thursday by Staff Secretary William Scharf—who’s spent the last two months personally presenting documents to Trump in the Oval Office—details the new rules.
“We have gone significantly further than [the] need for express approval, both in this Administration and in the First Trump Administration,” Scharf said. “Our practice around autopen usage is far more restrictive than most previous administrations.”
Executive orders, bills, nominations, and even invitations to foreign leaders are off-limits for the autopen—Trump signs them all by hand, with witnesses present. The device is reserved for rare cases, like when a document needs multiple signatures, and only with Trump’s explicit go-ahead.
A January 28 memo also reviewed by the New York Post names Scharf and Chief of Staff Susie Wiles as the primary autopen gatekeepers, with Scharf’s deputy and the executive clerk stepping in under his direction. The White House correspondence director can use it for routine public messages—like birthday notes to citizens—after Scharf’s approval.
Autopens aren’t new—Lyndon Johnson used them in the 1960s for kids’ letters, and Barack Obama famously signed a spending bill with one in 2013. But their scope has grown.
Scharf emphasized safeguards in Trump’s setup: the autopen lives in the Office of Presidential Records, a non-production unit, ensuring no single office can both draft and sign a document. “I view it as my weightiest responsibility… to ensure that documents issuing from this White House under the President’s signature reflect the actual expressed will of the President,” he wrote.
Biden’s term saw the autopen stretch beyond weighty matters like pardons for figures like Liz Cheney and Anthony Fauci. Staffers used it on quirky items—think kitchen tools or sports gear—sent in by collectors chasing every president’s mark.
“We’d get weird historical stuff,” one aide recalled. “Like people had collected every president’s signature on the weirdest objects and needed the newest one.” Annual declarations, like heritage month statements, also got the auto-treatment, often without fresh approval if they’d been signed before.
As Trump’s team locks down the process, the contrast with Biden’s looser approach highlights a lingering question: whose will really shaped those final signatures?
Stay tuned to the Conservative Column.
