President Trump apparently has autopen phobia over just about everything Joe Biden did as president.
First, he issued an executive order canceling any Biden actions, including pardons, issued with an autopen signature, and now he’s turning his eye toward Federal Reserve appointments made under Biden that he claims may have been signed using an autopen, not by the president himself.
During his lengthy speech yesterday in Pennsylvania, President Trump said he had heard that the Biden administration appointed four members to the Federal Reserve using the autopen. He ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to look into the matter, with the announced intent to void those appointments.
“By the way, it looks — you’re gonna have to check this, please — I just heard, it could be that all four commissioners in the Fed signed by Biden … I hear that the autopen may have signed those commissions,” Trump told the rally. “I’m hearing that the autopen could have signed, maybe all four, but maybe a couple of them. We’ll take two.”
Trump has long used the bully pulpit to urge the Fed to lower interest rates drastically, down to 3 percent or lower, and replacing two Fed chairs could help expedite that wish into reality.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is taking up the issue of whether the president can fire members of independent federal agencies. In the case under question, he terminated a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but saw the action terminated by a court order.
During its hearing on the case, SCOTUS appeared likely to grant Trump that power, overturning a 90-year-old prior decision known as Humphrey’s Executor that limited such firings to just cause, such as malfeasance.
Firing a Fed member, however, may prove to be an autopen too far, even if the Supreme Court okays the FTC firing.
