The presence or absence of Donald Trump’s signature on certain documents has been causing a lot of controversy of late, but his most recent claim in that area has to be the most unbelievable yet.
His latest claim is to have signed the Declaration of Independence.
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I gave them my autograph on that document – for a fee, of course. But hey, it was worth every penny. Mine is the first signature there, and the biggest. Better than Obama, and better than George Washington, where are they now?”
It then had to be explained to him that George Washington was not one of the signatories of the document, and that it was drafted and signed before either he or Obama were even born.
“So? I can still sign it to show my support for America. Every president should sign it to show he loves America.”
He subsequently went on to tweet this statement, which got a mention on Fox News as a good idea, getting in turn the predictable praise by the right-wing self-styled patriots.
The fact that only two of the signatories of the original document, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, went on to serve as president, cut no ice with Trump.
“That just shows how none of the other presidents loved America like I do,” he replied, in what may well be the truest statement he has ever made, even if he didn’t see the irony of it.
Technically of course, it is physically possible for him to add his signature to the document, but it would constitute an act of vandalism. The only remaining question then, is whether it is worth defacing such an important piece of American history to get him arrested.
It is rumoured that the FBI have commissioned the country’s finest forgers to create a perfect duplicate of the document to get him to sign. The FBI have refused to comment on this.