WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump may believe the adage that the pen is mightier than the sword — as long as it’s a Sharpie.
During a Cabinet meeting Thursday that discussed the war in Iran, record-long security lines at many of the nation’s top airports, rising oil prices and skittish stock markets, the president interjected by holding up a custom-made black and gold Sharpie and offering a long story about how his preferred marker came to be a White House fixture.
“See this pen right here?” Trump said at the start of a roughly five-minute, on-and-off diatribe on the Sharpie. “This pen is an interesting example.”
It was one of several lengthy asides the president made during the meeting that sometimes felt especially jarring given how many more important things his top advisers could have been discussing. The Sharpie monologue came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, envoy Steve Witkoff, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered sobering comments about missile strikes, Tehran’s uranium enrichment efforts and the U.S. troops that remain in harm’s way.
The president offered the winding tale as an example of how his business sense can lead to better, cheaper outcomes in federal spending. He was also seeking to drive home his broader, long-standing criticism that renovations to the Federal Reserve Building in Washington are too expensive.
“We’ve gotta get our priorities straight,” Trump said.
Trump’s anecdote began with him insisting that the White House was once stocked with “beautiful” ballpoint pens that cost $1,000 each.
That presented a problem, Trump said, when, during ceremonial bill signings, he would hand out pens as keepsakes to lawmakers, supporters and various others who helped make new legislation possible. Recipients even included children, whom he lamented did not know the value of what they’d been gifted.
“Sometimes you have 30, 40 people,” Trump said.
Despite being known for a love of all things ostentatious — including the sprawling, $400 million White House ballroom he demolished the East Wing to build — Trump said giving away so many expensive pens meant “I feel guilty by nature.”
“I love the government like I love myself, economically,” Trump said. “I want to save money.”
The president said he worked with a marker maker and worried about giving the company involved too much publicity — only to divulge that it was Sharpie, a longtime favorite of his. For decades as a celebrity businessman, he used the pens to sign autographs or mark up newspaper clippings and send them with personalized notes written in the telltale thick black ink. And, as president, Trump has continued to wield the pens to sign executive orders, proclamations and bills.
Trump said he contacted Sharpie and was told that they could make a black pen with the White House logo in gold and that they wouldn’t charge for it. Trump said he insisted on paying $5 per marker. Online searches reveal that typical Sharpies sell for usually $1 to $2 apiece.
“The head of Sharpie gets a call. I don’t even know who the hell he is. He said, ‘Is this really the president?’” Trump said.
It was the most attention the marker has gotten at the White House since the “ Sharpiegate ” scandal involving Hurricane Dorian during Trump’s first term. Still, Sharpie’s manufacturer, Atlanta-based Newell Brands, said in a statement that it didn’t have any information about the conversation Trump described, but that Sharpies are used by current and past U.S. presidents, elected officials, celebrities, athletes, and artists, among others.
Trump summed it up as “a business story.”
“For $5, I get a much better pen than for $1,000, and I can hand them out,” Trump said. “And, honestly, they’ve become hot as a pistol, so what can I tell you?”
After concluding his Sharpie story, Trump took a moment to revel in his own storytelling ability before offering the floor to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“Good luck, Scott,” he said as the rest of the Cabinet laughed again.
“Well, sir,” Bessent offered, “as usual, you’re a tough act to follow.”
Will Weissert, The Associated Press
