Autographed Trump items sold on his website were signed by a machine

Impact

From Trump University degrees to Trump Steaks, President-elect Donald Trump demonstrates once again that he can sell products that have no worth. An ABC News report indicated that Trump's autographed paraphernalia, which were highly advertised on social media and his website, may not have been signed with his own hand. 

During his presidential campaign, Trump raked in large sums of money by selling autographed hats and signed copies of his book, The Art of the Deal. While many supporters donated money in exchange for the autographed items, they may not have noticed anything suspicious about the signature. ABC News found that the autographs appeared to have been made by an autopen machine. 

Eric Schultz/AP

The use of a machine to automatically sign a signature became evident when buyers tried to resell the autographed items on eBay. The hats, with prices ranging from $125 to $243, were signed in the exact same place — the lower left on the hat brim with no variance in any of the signatures, ABC News reported. Meanwhile, the bookplates in Trump's The Art of the Deal showed a slightly different signature from the hats, yet these signatures too appear to be identical to one another. 

Some sellers pulled the products from eBay when they were notified of Trump's signature pattern. "I couldn't, in good conscience, sell a hat that I now knew wasn't signed by Donald Trump," an anonymous source told ABC News.  

Although presidents and other public figures have used autopen machines to sign notes and letters, it's unusual for high-profile personalities to sell products with an autopenned signature, ABC News reported.