The Autopen Gambit: When Political Theater Costs Billions
President Trump just announced he's canceling "all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally."
Bold move. There's just one problem—actually, several problems—with this sweeping declaration.
What the Autopen Can't Touch
First, the legal reality check. Presidential pardons and Senate-confirmed appointments can't be rescinded by executive fiat, autopen or not.
Pardons are constitutionally permanent. Article II, Section 2 gives the president absolute pardon power. Once granted, they're done. The Supreme Court settled this in Ex parte Garland (1866)—a pardon "releases the punishment and blots out of existence the guilt." Whether Biden signed with a pen, an autopen, or a crayon doesn't matter. The pardon stands.
Senate-confirmed appointments? Same story. Once the Senate confirms someone, the president can't unilaterally "cancel" them. That's not how separation of powers works. You'd need cause for removal, due process, and in many cases, cooperation from the appointee or Congress. The autopen argument is legally meaningless here.
So we're really talking about executive orders. Fair game for any president to rescind. Trump did it to Obama's orders. Biden did it to Trump's. Now Trump's doing it again.
But here's where this gets expensive and stupid.
The Bipartisan Orders Nobody Asked to Kill
Biden issued 162 executive orders during his presidency. Many were partisan. Some reversed Trump policies. But a handful addressed genuine national crises and earned bipartisan praise—Republicans and Democrats alike welcomed them as pragmatic, non-ideological responses to shared problems.
If Trump's autopen purge is as sweeping as announced, he's not just undoing partisan policies. He's torching orders that his own party supported and that cost billions to implement.
EO 13987: COVID-19 Response Coordination (January 20, 2021)
This order created a unified federal response to the pandemic—vaccine distribution, testing expansion, international health leadership.
Bipartisan support: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) praised it as necessary coordination during a national emergency. It wasn't new spending; it was organizing what we already had.
Cost to undo: ~$10–50 million in administrative reconfiguration. Low, sure, but why? The pandemic's over. This order's already done its job. Rescinding it now is pure symbolism—expensive symbolism.
EO 14017: America's Supply Chains (February 24, 2021)
This one ordered reviews of critical supply chains—semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, rare earth minerals—to identify vulnerabilities and boost domestic production. It laid the groundwork for the CHIPS and Science Act, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Bipartisan support: Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) commended the focus on reshoring manufacturing. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) highlighted job creation. This wasn't left vs. right; it was America vs. China.
Cost to undo: ~$100–500 million. The order spurred multi-year reviews and federal investments, including the $52 billion CHIPS Act. Undoing it means renegotiating grants, disrupting supply contracts, and killing momentum in domestic semiconductor manufacturing.
Why would you do that? To own the libs? China's laughing.
EO 14028: Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity (May 12, 2021)
After the SolarWinds hack exposed massive vulnerabilities, this order mandated federal agencies adopt zero-trust architecture, enhance software supply chain security, and share threat information with the private sector.
Bipartisan support: Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) co-signed related legislation. Tech industry groups across the political spectrum endorsed it. This was a "wake-up call" everyone heard.
Cost to undo: ~$500 million to $1 billion+. By 2025, implementation involved over $2 billion in federal IT upgrades and private-sector compliance tools. These standards are now embedded in federal procurement. Reversal means costly system rollbacks, reintroducing vulnerabilities, and contractor litigation.
You want to make America less secure to prove a point about an autopen? That's not governance. That's arson.
EO 14023: Military Health Care System Expansion (March 25, 2021)
This order expanded telehealth access for veterans, streamlined VA hiring, and improved mental health services. It built on momentum from the bipartisan PACT Act.
Bipartisan support: Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL), chairs of key veterans' committees, lauded it for honoring service members without creating new entitlements.
Cost to undo: ~$200–400 million. Tied to VA infrastructure expansions like telehealth systems. Reversal could involve contract terminations, rehiring reversals, and veteran lawsuits. Much of this is now statutory, so undoing the order won't undo the programs—it'll just create legal chaos.
Veterans voted for Trump in huge numbers. This is how you thank them?
The Bottom Line: Billions Wasted for Nothing
Rescinding an executive order is easy. A president signs a piece of paper, and it's done. But reversing what's already been implemented? That's where the money bleeds.
Conservative estimate for undoing these four orders alone: Over $1 billion in transitional expenses, sunk investments, and disruptions. And that's just four orders out of potentially dozens caught in the autopen dragnet.
These weren't partisan culture war battles. They were responses to real problems—pandemic coordination, supply chain vulnerabilities, cyberattacks, veteran care—that both parties agreed needed fixing.
Now we're supposed to undo them because... Biden used an autopen? A device that's been used by presidents since Eisenhower? That's been legally vetted for decades?
The Autopen Isn't the Issue
Presidents have used autopens for routine documents since the 1950s. It's not illegal. It's not controversial. It's efficient. The Presidential Records Act and Office of Legal Counsel opinions have consistently affirmed that autopen signatures are valid for most executive functions, provided the president authorizes their use.
The only real legal question is whether an autopen can be used for bills becoming law—and even there, OLC guidance from 2005 suggests it's permissible if the president explicitly authorizes it and is unavailable to sign personally.
So this isn't about legality. It's about creating a pretext to wipe the slate clean and claim Biden's entire presidency was illegitimate.
Fine. That's politics. But when you're torching bipartisan achievements that cost billions to build and will cost billions more to undo—achievements that made America more secure, more competitive, and better prepared for crises—you're not draining the swamp.
You're flooding it.
What This Really Costs
Forget the dollar figures for a moment. Think about what we lose:
- Cybersecurity infrastructure that protects federal systems from Chinese and Russian hackers.
- Supply chain resilience that reduces our dependence on foreign adversaries.
- Veteran healthcare improvements that save lives and honor service.
- Pandemic coordination frameworks that could be reactivated if another crisis hits.
All of it built with bipartisan support. All of it functional. All of it about to be dismantled because of a signature method that's been standard practice for 70 years.
This isn't principled conservatism. It's not even partisan warfare. It's performative destruction—expensive, pointless, and dangerous.
The Quiet Part Out Loud
Trump's team knows the autopen argument is nonsense. They know these orders had Republican support. They know undoing them costs a fortune and accomplishes nothing.
But they also know their base doesn't care about the details. They care about the narrative: Biden was illegitimate, so everything he did must be erased.
That's the gambit. Burn it all down, blame the other guy, and hope nobody notices the price tag.
Except some of us are noticing. And we're keeping receipts.
