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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • The first president to use the autopen extensively was Thomas Jefferson. … Since Jefferson, various US presidents have made use of the autopen; some were guarded about it while others were more open about its use. Whereas once the official White House position was to deny the existence or usage of the autopen, today its existence is more of an open secret.

    Harry Truman was rumored to make use of the device; Gerald Ford was open about his utilization of the autopen, but it was Lyndon B. Johnson who blew the doors off the entire affair by allowing the device to be photographed in the White House, appearing on the cover of The National Enquirer with the article “The Robot That Sits in for the President.”

    John F. Kennedy was so dependent on the autopen, that he became the subject of a book entitled The Robot That Helped to Make a President.

    But when Biden uses it, it’s a scandal, and when Trump duplicates his signatures it’s perfectly fine. Good old Republican hypocrisy.