What Pen Does Biden Use To Sign Executive Orders
Senior writer Karen Iorio Adelson has covered everything from stocking a medicine cabinet to adopting a pet. Shes especially passionate about running and cat furniture
Senior writer Karen Iorio Adelson has covered everything from stocking a medicine cabinet to adopting a pet. Shes especially passionate about running and cat furniture
After a refreshingly stylish inauguration ceremony , newly sworn-in President Biden wasted little time getting down to work, signing 17 executive orders in the Oval Office on his first day. Neatly stacked in a pile of leather-bound folders, the orders addressed an array of critical issues facing the country, from the pandemic and climate change to immigration and racial justice. My detail-obsessed Strategist mind, though, couldnt help but focus on another item on the Resolute desk: a little wooden box displaying a lineup of identical black-barreled pens with shiny gold accents. Obviously I had to find out: What is Bidens pen of choice?
When Trump took office, his administration initially ordered a stock of Century IIs, but, as Trump told Axios, he soon rejected the official pen in favor of a chunky Sharpie. He says he asked the brand to design a custom one for him and to make it look rich. Trumps Sharpie was perhaps most infamously used to adapt the projected course of Hurricane Dorian on a White House map in 2019 to support his inaccurate tweet that the storm would impact Alabama.
Which Pen Does President Trump Use For His Signature
Does The President Use A Special Type Of Pen
According to pens.com, presidential pens are actually a thing.
They state manufacturer A. T. Cross is a long standing supplier with the likes of Barack Obama and George W. Bush being fans of their metal construction, deep black lacquer, and real gold-plated tip.
They dont come cheap though their priciest pen sells for $110 .
Trump was more in favour of using a Sharpie to sign off his executive orders though.
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Does The President Have Too Much Power
Stroke of the pen. Law of the Land. Kind of cool.
Paul Begala, advisor to President Bill Clinton
One of the oldest traditions in the American republic is government by emergency. Over the last 2½ centuries, US citizens have endured confiscation, imprisonment, and censorship conducted outside normal constitutional constraints. The Supreme Court has routinely upheld war and emergency powers claimed by US presidents. In most cases, the majority of Americans have supported these measures.
An executive order is the law of the land unless overturned by the Supreme Court or overridden by Congress. Thats happened only twice in American history. And if Congress overrides an executive order, the president can always veto it. That means unless two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate vote to override the veto, the executive order stays in place.
This is not likely to happen in the Trump administration, since both houses of Congress will be controlled by his party, the Republicans. And even if they do, Trump could simply veto that law.
In just over five weeks, President Trump will, at the stroke of a pen, be able to:
- Impose national banking holidays closing all US banks. President Franklin Roosevelt used this authority in 1933 to close down the US banking system after a run of bank failures. Alternatively, the president may restrict or ration currency withdrawals and the cashing of checks or drafts.
Trump Fond Of Executive Orders Awaits More Fancy Pens
PROVIDENCE, R.I. It didn’t take long for President Donald Trump to start running out of the custom-made Cross pens he uses to sign executive orders.
“I think we’re going to need some more pens, by the way,” he said on Inauguration Day four weeks ago. Trump was handing them out as souvenirs for members of Congress who attended his first signing ceremony, joking to the lawmakers that “the government is getting stingy, right?”
The White House expected its latest batch of 350 of the gold-plated pens by Friday. They were shipped Wednesday by the 170-year-old New England company that has supplied its fancy pens to at least seven U.S. presidents. But Trump might be the first to make brandishing a pen and showing off each newly signed order such a definitive part of his governing style.
“He absolutely, positively, had to have them by Friday,” said Andy Boss, who manages business gift sales for A.T. Cross Co., based in Providence, Rhode Island. “My guess is he’s running low.”
President Barack Obama used the company’s pricier Townsend model to sign the Affordable Care Act in 2010 but later switched to the slimmer Century II, the same felt-tipped model wielded by Trump when he signed an action last month expressing his intent to repeal Obama’s health care law.
“It’s really just a personal preference,” Boss said. “Obviously, Trump loves gold.”
This story has been corrected to show that the great-grandfather of Andy Boss bought the company, not his grandfather.
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Our Favorite Engraved Cross Pens
Cross® Click Chrome Ballpoint: This retractable chrome pen features a smooth gel ink which flows freely like a fountain pen.
Cross® Bailey Black Lacquer Ballpoint: This classic, luxurious pen, featuring black lacquer finish, engraved accents, and the Cross® patented propel/repel feature.
Cross® Tech3+ Chrome Multifunction Stylus Pen: This multi-function stylus pen boasts the quality craftsmanship youd expect from a Cross® pen, and features black ink, red ink, a mechanical pencil, an eraser, and a stylus tip.
For more on Cross® pens, check out our blog, Engraved Cross® Pens Make a Winning First Impression.
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A Tradition That Dates Back To President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Presidents often use several pens to sign a bill into law, a tradition dates back nearly a century and continues to this day. President Donald Trump, for example, used several bill-signing pens on his first day in office when he put his signature on his first executive order, instructing federal agencies to uphold the Affordable Care Act while also working to “minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens” on American citizens and companies.
Trump used so many pens and handed them out as souvenirs on Jan. 20, 2017, the day he was sworn into office, that he joked to staff: I think were going to need some more pens, by the way … The government is getting stingy, right? Oddly enough, before Trump, President Barack Obama used nearly two dozen pens to sign that same legislation into law in 2010.
That’s a lot of pens.
Unlike his predecessor, Trump uses gold-plated pens from A.T. Cross Co. based in Rhode Island. The company’s suggested retail price for the pens is $115 apiece.
The practice of using several pens isn’t universal, however. Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, never used more than one pen to sign a bill into law.
Pen Trading And Peekaboo At President Trump’s 1st Law Signing
He signed Cabinet nominations in the President’s Room.
Trump, Lawmakers Joke About Pens During Law Signing
— Sitting in the President’s Room at the U.S. Capitol, with his grandchildren by his side, President Donald Trump had some fun signing the formal nominations for his Cabinet picks.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi smiled and told the room she got “Tom Price,” meaning she received the pen used to sign his nomination. The mention prompted a response from the 45th president and praise for his pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price .
“You know he’s going to be terrific, and he’s going to be approved, but I’ll give you a different one,” Trump told Pelosi. “You want Elaine?”
“Mr. President, the leader wants Elaine,” Pelosi told Trump referring to Donald Trump’s pick for Transportation Secretary and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s wife.
“You know what, the leader should have Elaine,” Trump agreed, giving the pen to McConnell.
According to Time, it’s customary for the president to use multiple pens to sign important legislation. It’s a tradition that dates back to at least President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt.
Trump’s 10-year-old son Barron also had some fun, playing peekaboo with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s son Theodore.
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Notes On A Scandal: Why Trump Loves To Scrawl In Marker Pen
Trumps remarks about Russian election interference were covered in marker pen scrawls its been his favoured mode of communication for decades
In January 2017, with the world wondering just how radical a departure the Trump presidency was going to be, people were grasping at any signs of continuity in the Oval Office. The president, who made his mark bucking tradition during the election, is sticking with a long-standing White House pen supplier, said one CNN article, breathing a sigh of relief that Trump had ordered 150 Century II black lacquer and gold roller ball pens from AT Cross, the same manufacturer used by former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton.
Yet as the presidency progressed it became clear even the hallowed ballpoint could not be protected. The pen Trump is far more comfortable with is a big black Sharpie.
Yesterday, as he attempted to row back his statements made during his Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, Trumps prepared notes were covered in annotations in marker.
Over typed-up remarks, Trump had written there was no colusion in large capital letters. He also crossed out a line that read anyone involved in that meddling to justice, suggesting he didnt want to go as far as to say the US would take action against Russian interference.
Another paragraph that said some in Washington dont want diplomacy and are in the same mindset that dragged us into Iraq and Libya was also crossed out.
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With no filter and no party, Mr Zemmour trades on two pet themes. He has developed these in various books over the past 15 years, most recently in France Hasnt Said its Final Word. One theme is a lament for the collapse of authority, identity, virility and traditional families in the face of feminism, the consumer society, liberalism, gender indecision, and other imported American ills. The other is what Mr Zemmour terms the Islamisation of French society, and the reverse conquest through immigration of a 2,000-year-old Christian land. In 2018 he was convicted of incitement to racial discrimination.
Born in the Paris region, Mr Zemmour is himself of Jewish-Algerian descent. Yet, in an attempt to tap into a deep hard-right nationalist strain, he also defends Vichy France for protecting French Jews, on the bizarre grounds that it deported foreign Jews first. Adept at such distortions of history, Mr Zemmour wraps his tirades in a narrative of nostalgia, decline and loss. He brings in ample references to Joan of Arc, Louis XlV, Napoleon Bonaparte and Charles de Gaulle. Never in our history has our nation been in such peril, he told a recent rally. It is threatened with extinction.
Correction : A previous version of this article said Mr Zemmour posed with a machine gun. It was in fact a rifle.
More from The Economist explains:
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And What Kind Of Pen Does The President Use
Presidential writing pens are a thing. Typically, presidents have a beloved pen brand they use to sign bills, and those pens are then gifted to people involved in working on the bill. Have you ever seen a president use multiple pens to sign one document? Thats again for souvenirsthe more pens, the more people the president can gift them to.
Suing Trump For Endangering The First Amendment
President Trump has First Amendment rights like everyone else, but he doesnt have the right to use the instruments of governmental power to impair others First Amendment rights. Thats the premise of a new lawsuit filed by the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy on behalf of PEN America , an organization representing journalists. The filing asserts that, while President Trump is free to express his own views critical of journalists and media outlets, his use of the regulatory and enforcement powers of government to punish the press for criticism of him is unconstitutional, PENs press release explains.
In part citing Trump statements against Washington Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos, PEN seeks a declaratory judgment that the Presidents retaliatory actions violate the First Amendment and enjoin the President from directing any employee or agency of the federal government to take any action against the press in retaliation for coverage the President views as hostile. The press release continues:
The complaint says straight away that its not going after Trump for his enemy of the people sort of rhetoric: These ongoing verbal attacks on the press and others exercising their own First Amendment rights, while troubling and anti-democratic, are not the basis upon which Plaintiff PEN America seeks relief.
Other objectionable actions include threats to pull press credentials and broadcast licenses.
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