For years, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeated a story about the invention of the paper clip.
While on the 2024 campaign trail, he repeatedly claimed that a man first came up with the idea for the paper clip 100, 125 or 129 years earlier, comparing the invention to his own policy proposals, including tariffs and tax-deductible car loan interest. In 2025, he said the paper clip was invented 208 years before in 1817. In 2026, he claimed the invention occurred 182 years earlier. He has also compared the invention of the paper clip to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
On March 23, 2026, Trump claimed responsibility for sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to assist Transportation Security Administration officials at airports.
"Mine. That was mine," he told reporters. "That was like the paper clip. You know the story of the paper clip? One hundred eighty-two years ago, a man discovered the paper clip. It was so simple. And everybody that looked at it said, 'Why didn't I think of that?' ICE was my idea."
The Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) X account — founded in February by former Vice President Kamala Harris — posted a video of Trump's comments (archived). Other users shared the clip or quote on Bluesky (archived), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok (archived) and other social media platforms.
In short, Trump repeatedly falsely remarked about the history of the paper clip. The math on his 2024 mentions of 100, 125 and 129 "years ago," as well as 2026's "182 years ago," worked out to 1924, 1899, 1895 and 1844. He also specifically mentioned 1817.
The Early Office Museum — a website hosting more than two decades of research about the evolution of offices — wrote (archived) that historical documentation shows the common, loop-shaped "Gem" paper clip originated in 1892, without a U.S. patent. Many other paper clip designs appeared in patent records and other historical documents in the years and decades prior to and following 1892.
Snopes contacted the White House by email to ask about Trump's ever-changing story about the invention of the paper clip, as well as the time Trump compared the invention of the paper clip to the 9/11 attacks. We will update this article if we receive further information.
A brief history of the paper clip
The story of the paper clip isn't quite as simple as naming an inventor and patent date. U.S. patent records and other historical documentation feature many different paper clip designs throughout the latter half of the 19th century, as well as the early 20th century. To further muddy the waters of our research, we found some patent holders' drawings labeled inventions resembling the common clipboard — as well as other products — as a "paper clip."
The Early Office Museum hosts the authoritative report (archived), "History of the Paper Clip." The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine website retains records of the report as far back as 2002, with numerous updates made in the years since.
That report credits Samuel B. Fay with creating an X-shaped fastening device for holding tags or tickets to fabrics in 1867.
(U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)
In Fay's patent, he described his invention as follows:
The nature of my invention consists in providing a loop made of wire for the purpose of holding tags or tickets to fine fabrics to supply the place of pins, which have heretofore been used for that purpose, and which injure the fabrics to a greater or less extent by perforations. By my invention this injurious mode of securing tags or tickets is obviated by making a loop or clasp of wire that springs over the surface of the ticket and goods, holding the ticket firm to the goods. My invention is especially adapted to securing tickets to silks, lace, and all the finer class of goods, without injury or leaving the slightest trace upon the goods when removed.
Fay's patent briefly mentions paper but does not explicitly pose the idea of fastening multiple pieces of paper together.
The loop-shaped paper clip common today originated without a patent as the "Gem" paper clip in 1892, potentially even down to the date of March 1, 1892. Snopes located some of the same historical records the Early Office Museum cited.
("The American Stationer and Office Outfitter"/Google Books)
In 1901, Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler filed a U.S. patent documenting he "invented certain new and useful Improvements in Paper Clips or Holders." The Early Office Museum said he filed a similar patent in Germany in 1900. Even though Vaaler's patent explicitly spelled out his ideas for improvements, some sources have since commonly and inaccurately credited Vaaler with the outright invention of the paper clip.
(U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)
The Early Office Museum's website added a disclaimer about believing in misinformation from other online sources, which in present-day applies to search engines' unreliable artificial intelligence-generated answers (for example, Google's "AI Overview" and Bing's "CoPilot Search"). That disclaimer read in part:
The information on this page is based on our review of patents, early trade publications, artifacts, and other primary sources. As a result, unlike much of the information on the history of the paper clip that is available on the internet, the information presented here is accurate. The Early Office Museum is grateful to Kenneth R. Berry for sharing his patent and trademark research on paper clips.
Trump compared paper clip invention to 9/11
On April 1, 2016, The Washington Post published an interview with Trump. Searches indicated journalists Dan Balz and Jenna Johnson documented one of the earliest instances of Trump making a comparison involving the invention of the paper clip, if not the first.
Trump spoke about Republican former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush. At the time, Jeb Bush had recently dropped out of the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Trump spoke about the 9/11 terrorist attacks, then mentioned the invention of the paper clip:
Then I made the statement about Bush and I talked about two things. No. 1, during the debate I talked — when he [Jeb] said, "My brother kept us safe." I said, really? What about the World Trade Center coming down? And for some reason, he's been absolved of that. It was like the paper clip. It's very, very simple but only one person made money with it, right? He was always known as the president that kept us safe. And Jeb would hit me at the debates — two times at the Reagan Library. And again, at the next debate, I said I got to do it. I didn't want to do it. I got to do it. Because he said, "My brother kept us safe."
For further reading, we previously reported about the evolution of Trump's belief that grocery stores keep apples in refrigerators — also a common 2024 campaign stump speech story.