Donald Trump recently spoke at length about his choice of affordable pens. He switched to $5 Sharpies instead of $1,000 White House pens, which he said did not work well. The 79-year-old president shifted off-topic during a Cabinet meeting. During remarks that also touched on issues such as Iran and rising fuel prices, he spoke extensively about pens.
Right before diving into the pen talk, Trump was talking about the cost of construction at the Federal Reserve building. He claimed the project cost reached $3 billion, while he could have completed the project for about $25 million.
Moving on to pens, he said, “See this pen right here? This pen is an interesting example.” Earlier, Trump used $1,000 “beautiful” ballpoint pens that he also handed out as keepsakes. He would give them to lawmakers, supporters and even kids. He complained that the children did not even know the value of these pens. So he felt bad giving away the expensive pens.
Trump: You see this pen right here? This pen is very inexpensive. But it writes well. I like it. Sharpie. I came here. They had $1,000 pens. You hand out pens. You hand them to people. 30, 40 people. They were $1,000 a piece. Beautiful pen, ball point. I hand out to kids that… pic.twitter.com/mrEXypiA0o
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 26, 2026
He sometimes had to give these pens to 30 to 40 people, which increased costs. He added that he felt guilty: “I love the government like I love myself, economically. I want to save money.”
Then he discovered Sharpie, which was affordable and worked well. So far, he has used a Sharpie to sign orders, bills and proclamations. He considered them better than expensive pens that had no ink and might have raised questions.
The traditional White House signing pens are Cross pens. They retail for $100-$300. “Thousand dollars” is Trump math, but the point stands. He switched to Sharpies in his first term for the same reason.
— IredcapI (@IredcapI) March 26, 2026
Then came the anecdote of Trump reaching out to the company, adding that the gray Sharpie did not go with his personality. The company agreed to make a black pen with a White House logo in gold, without charging extra. He continued, “For $5, I get a much better pen than for $1,000, and I can hand them out. And, honestly, they’ve become hot as a pistol, so what can I tell you?”
He framed it as an example of cost-saving decisions, something he could have done with the Federal Reserve building. Needless to say, viewers found the pen monologue to be unnecessary.
One X user commented, “When you sign 900 executive orders in the first 48 hours, the least you can do is save money on the pens… you’re not saving it anywhere else.” Another one on Instagram added, “Trump will literally have a whole conversation about absolutely NOTHING.”
