On March 26, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed he was able to make a deal on customized pens with Sharpie, the Newell Brands-owned company that manufactures the iconic markers.
Trump made the claim during a Cabinet meeting while discussing his planned renovation of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and criticizing upgrades made to the Federal Reserve building.
In that context, according to footage released by USA Today, C-SPAN, The Associated Press and other media outlets, Trump went on to say he had spoken to the "head of Sharpie" and said, "I'd like to use your pen, but I can't have a great thing with a big S on it saying Sharpie as I'm signing a $1 trillion airplane contract to buy brand-new fighter jets." The head of Sharpie then offered to "paint it black" with "the White House on it" in gold, Trump claimed.
But the company said it wasn't aware of any such discussion. "We don't have any information about the conversation described," a representative for Sharpie told The Washington Post. "We're proud to be a beloved brand trusted by so many globally."
We reached out to both Sharpie and the White House for comment and will update this article if we learn more. Until then, we leave this claim unrated.
Trump's anecdote about speaking to the head of Sharpie begins at the 51:35 mark in the video below (emphasis ours):
Think of this Federal Reserve. I would have had that building done for $25 million. I would have, if I did it, it was up to … somebody else would have done it for more […] It would be better. See this pen right here. […] So this pen is very inexpensive. But it writes well. I like it. But I can't have the pen the way it was. You know what it is. I don't want to give them too much publicity, but they do treat me well. Sharpie.
So, I came here. They have thousand-dollar pens. And you know, you hand pens out. You're signing and you're handing them out. You're handing them to all these people. Sometimes you have 30, 40 people. And they were $1,000 a piece. Beautiful pen. Ballpoint. Thousand. It was gold, silver, gorgeous. But I'm handing out to kids that don't even know what it is. […] I want to save money. So I'm saying, "This is crazy." And it had another problem, it didn't write well. […] There's no ink in the pen and it costs $1,000.
I called the guy, I said, "I'd like to use your pen, but I can't have a grey thing with a big S on it saying Sharpie as I'm signing a $1 trillion airplane contract to buy brand new fighter jets."
[…]
He says, "Well, I can make it nicer."
I said, "What can you do?"
He said, "I'll paint it black."
I said, "That's nice."
"And I can even paint the White House on it, sir, if you like, in gold." Almost real gold. Not bad. "And I can even do your signature, sir." And by the way this was not staged.
[…]
So the guy said to me, "You don't have to pay me, sir. I'll give them to you for nothing."
I said, "No, I don't want that. Let me pay you. I want to pay you."
"No, sir. You don't have to. You're the president of the United States." He was shocked. The head of Sharpie. He gets a call. I don't even know who the hell he is.
He said, "Is this really the president?" He said, "No, you don't have to pay me, sir. This is such an honor."
I said, "No, I want to pay you."
And he said, "What would you like to pay?"
I said, "How about five bucks a pen?"
He said, "That's all right."
Trump uses a customized black Sharpie pen with his signature emblazoned on it in gold to sign his executive orders, as seen in photographs on Getty Images. The pen he displayed during the March 26 Cabinet meeting also had his signature on one side and "The White House" on the other.
We asked Sharpie to confirm whether it had actually made such pens for Trump. As of this writing, we are unable to determine exactly who customized them.
Snopes has fact-checked numerous claims made by Trump, including the time he falsely stated Shariah courts enforce law in the U.K.