Trump at Rally: Biden’s Autopen-Signed Fed Appointments Could Be Invalid
At a campaign stop in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump ignited a new line of attack against Joe Biden, claiming that key personnel decisions at the Federal Reserve may not hold up legally. Trump told the crowd he had been informed that Biden had used an autopen to sign the documents elevating several Democrats to the Fed’s Board of Governors, a detail he argued could undermine their authority.
Trump used the Pennsylvania rally, billed as an economic address, to raise doubts about whether those appointments conform to federal law. He said he is weighing whether to formally challenge the validity of the signings, noting that he plans to speak with legal advisers before deciding how to proceed.
He folded the Fed appointments into a broader critique of what he called Biden’s “autopen presidency,” maintaining that an array of Biden-era actions lacked legitimacy because the signatures weren’t personally executed. Trump argued that many directives, memos, and administrative decisions “should not carry the force of law” if Biden did not physically sign them.
During Biden’s tenure, aides openly acknowledged frequent reliance on the autopen — a device used by multiple past presidents — for routine paperwork or when Biden was out of Washington. The practice was described as a standard procedural tool for managing a high volume of official documents.
Trump has already vowed to roll back a number of Biden-era measures on the grounds that they were finalized with an autopen. He has said that certain regulatory steps and administrative orders will be canceled because, in his view, they lacked direct presidential authorization.
Democrats have rejected that premise, arguing that Trump’s denouncements distort a long-accepted White House practice and create unnecessary confusion about the legitimacy of government processes.
Legal scholars in recent commentary have emphasized that the decisive factor is whether the president authorized the action, not whether the ink on the page came from his own hand. They maintain that Biden’s team consistently met those requirements.
Experts have also pointed out that presidents from both parties — including George W. Bush and Barack Obama — used the autopen to sign routine matters and even time-sensitive legislative items.
Analysts say that the legality of such signatures hinges entirely on the president’s explicit direction, a condition they argue Biden satisfied throughout his term.
Trump closed his remarks in Mount Pocono by suggesting that Biden’s autopen usage raises deeper questions about who was “actually running things” in Washington. He cited reporting from Reuters as justification for raising the issue with supporters.
{Matzav.com}
