President Donald Trump announced Friday that Joe Biden’s official White House portrait will highlight the use of his autopen, a device now at the center of congressional and executive branch investigations.
Speaking to Daily Caller reporter Reagan Reese while previewing updates planned for the White House, Trump displayed a sketch of Biden’s portrait, which he said will be installed on the “Presidential Wall of Fame” in the Rose Garden.
“We put up a picture of the autopen,” Trump said, noting that the image is expected to be unveiled within two weeks.
🚨 LMFAO! President Trump says he will be adding a portrait of Joe Biden’s autopen to his “Presidential Wall of Fame” in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 2, 2025
“It’s going up in about two weeks,” Trump told @reaganreese_
I can’t freaking WAIT for the Democrat meltdown 🤣🔥 pic.twitter.com/FUJwVxKvMS
It was not immediately clear whether the portrait would depict Biden with the device or feature the autopen alone.
Trump, alongside Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Communications Director Steven Cheung, presented Reese with different versions of the portrait, explaining that he preferred a black-and-white option without Biden smiling.
“I’m using—show the other one that we’re using because I like it. This is going to be very controversial,” Trump said.
Reese responded that the display “is going to be funny.”
Trump tied the portrait to an ongoing probe into Biden’s use of the autopen, which he has previously described as “disgraceful.”
“It’s true though, now they’re finding the autopen, which should not have been used,” he said.
Shortly after taking office, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington to investigate Biden’s reliance on the device.
Congressional Republicans have launched parallel inquiries.
In a memorandum outlining his concerns, Trump argued that Biden’s aides “abused the power of presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden’s cognitive decline and assert Article II authority. This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.”
The directive ordered a forensic review of every document bearing Biden’s signature, including executive orders, pardons, judicial appointments, and proclamations, to determine which were signed personally and which were executed using the autopen.
Although autopens have been used by presidents of both parties for routine correspondence and ceremonial purposes, critics contend Biden’s reliance on the device was unprecedented.
An investigation by the Oversight Project found that nearly every document from Biden’s presidency contained an autopen signature, with the exception of his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race.
Biden has defended his use of the device. In an interview with The New York Times, he insisted that he personally made decisions on commutations and pardons. “I made every decision,” Biden said.
He explained that the volume of cases led him to sign off on categories of offenders rather than individual files, allowing aides to apply criteria he approved.
Among the most controversial actions were sweeping commutations affecting roughly 4,000 federal convicts and “preemptive” pardons for figures including former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House January 6 committee.
Biden also signed a hand-executed pardon for his son Hunter, shielding him from prosecution for federal crimes committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024.
Trump has continued to argue that Biden’s dependence on the autopen raises questions about the legitimacy of those actions.
“The autopen I think is maybe one of the biggest scandals that we’ve had in 50 to 100 years,” Trump said during a June press conference.
“Essentially, whoever used the autopen was the president. That’s wrong. It’s illegal. It’s so bad and it’s so disrespectful to our country.”
House Oversight Chairman James Comer is leading a parallel investigation, demanding testimony from Biden’s former aides Mike Donilon, Anita Dunn, Ron Klain, Bruce Reed, and Steve Ricchetti.
Comer also issued subpoenas to Biden’s physician Kevin O’Connor and several staff members alleged to have shielded Biden’s health condition.
The committee has cited reporting from CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson’s book Original Sin, which alleged that “five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
Republicans argue that if Biden’s aides were making key decisions, major executive actions—including pardons of family members and members of the January 6 committee—could be invalid.
The autopen controversy is expected to remain a focal point of both congressional investigations and the Trump administration’s oversight efforts in the months ahead.
