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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Trump should learn a little history

Posted 4/3/25

Question: who was the first President to use an auto-pen?  This question is raised because President Biden allegedly used an auto-pen on documents to authorize the release of prisoners from …

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Trump should learn a little history

Posted

Question: who was the first President to use an auto-pen?  This question is raised because President Biden allegedly used an auto-pen on documents to authorize the release of prisoners from prison. 
It was Thomas Jefferson who first used one and one is on display at his home in Monticello. It’s likely that many thousands of documents have been signed over the last two hundred-plus years by an auto-pen. Trump likes to display a flashy home crafted signature to sign documents as a means of garnering more publicity.  
A horseback ride away from Monticello is Montpelier, the home of James Madison, who is considered the “father” of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  He also was a prolific writer of the Federalist Papers and advocated a strong federal government and a system of checks and balances. 
Trump ought to skip one of many golf games and take a helicopter ride to visit these historic homes in Virginia, not far from the White House.  Montpelier has recently been painstakingly restored to its original form when James and Dolly Madison lived there.  It is breathtaking when you can walk into Madison’s library where he wrote the United States Constitution.  It is a tour de force, setting out “new” and far-reaching thinking during that era.
The Constitution is based on the understanding of human nature, history, and forward thinking.  It has had a lasting impact not only on America, but the world.  
Trump took the presidential oath of office, twice, “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”   He probably has never read it, given that he has violated several articles that are not ambiguous.  
Gerry Snyder
Ely