Trump, fond of executive orders, awaits more fancy pens
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It didn’t take long for President Donald Trump to start running out of the custom-made Cross pens he uses to sign executive orders.
“I think we’re going to need some more pens, by the way,” he said on Inauguration Day four weeks ago. Trump was handing them out as souvenirs for members of Congress who attended his first signing ceremony, joking to the lawmakers that “the government is getting stingy, right?”
The White House expected its latest batch of 350 of the gold-plated pens by Friday. They were shipped Wednesday by the 170-year-old New England company that has supplied its fancy pens to at least seven U.S. presidents. But Trump might be the first to make brandishing a pen and showing off each newly signed order such a definitive part of his governing style.
“He absolutely, positively, had to have them by Friday,” said Andy Boss, who manages business gift sales for A.T. Cross Co., based in Providence, Rhode Island. “My guess is he’s running low.”