President Donald Trump joked on Tuesday that former President Joe Biden’s turkey pardons from last year were “totally invalid” because Biden used an autopen to sign the clemency papers. Speaking at the White House’s annual Turkey Pardoning Ceremony, Trump couldn’t resist poking fun at Biden’s reliance on the device — a recurring theme in his remarks over the past year.
“He used an autopen last year for the turkey’s pardon[s], so I have the official duty to determine, and I have determined last year’s turkey pardons are totally invalid,” Trump said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
Trump then shifted from ribbing “Sleepy” Biden to joking about Biden’s son, Hunter. “As are the pardons of about every other person that was pardoned, other than, uhh, where’s Hunter?” Trump said, earning more chuckles. “No, Hunter’s was good. That was the one pardon, Pam [Bondi], that was good, right? The rest of them are all invalid. I don’t know what the hell you’re going to do about that.”
Trump went on to announce that he had stepped in to re-pardon the two turkeys Biden pardoned last year, named “Peach” and “Blossom.” According to Trump, the birds had been destined for processing — “in other words, to be killed,” he said — until he located them and “saved them in the nick of time.”
He then formally pardoned this year’s turkeys, the “handsome” pair named “Gobble” and “Waddle.”
Trump’s jab about the autopen comes after he hung a portrait of the device in the White House in September, positioned between two framed images of himself among the presidential portraits. Biden’s frequent use of the autopen — a mechanical tool that reproduces a person’s signature — has irritated Trump since his return to office. The device was reportedly used to sign numerous official documents during Biden’s presidency, a common but often unnoticed practice in the executive branch.
Trump has argued that Biden’s reliance on the autopen raises legitimate questions about how closely the former president oversaw the documents issued under his name. In March, Fox News reported that its digital team “examined more than 20 Biden-era executive orders documented on the Federal Register’s office between 2021 and 2024 and found each had the same signature.”
