I like Cross pens. They’re not generally considered among the top manufacturers of collectible pens, perhaps IIRC, due to their late entry into manufacture of fountain pens. But to those of us of a certain age a Cross Century pen was considered a prestigious gift before we had ever heard of Montblanc. My collection includes Cross Selectip pens that used to belong to my Dad, a desk set given as a going away present when I bought my company, and a number of others.
Trump, fond of executive orders, awaits more fancy pens
In this Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, photo Andy Boss, who manages business gift sales for Rhode Island-based A.T. Cross Co., displays a custom-made Cross Century II model pen designed for President Donald Trump at the Cross Company Store in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)A.T. Cross Co. custom-made pens designed for President Donald Trump, featuring his signature and presidential seal, are displayed at the Cross Company Store in Providence, R.I. The President chose the Cross Century II model pen, top, for deliveries to the White House over the Cross Townsend model pen, below. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
By MATT O’BRIEN, Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It didn’t take long for President Donald Trump to start running out of the custom-made Cross pens he uses to sign executive orders.
“I think we’re going to need some more pens, by the way,” he said on Inauguration Day four weeks ago. Trump was handing them out as souvenirs for members of Congress who attended his first signing ceremony, joking to the lawmakers that “the government is getting stingy, right?”
The White House expected its latest batch of 350 of the gold-plated pens by Friday. They were shipped Wednesday by the 170-year-old New England company that has supplied its fancy pens to at least seven U.S. presidents. But Trump might be the first to make brandishing a pen and showing off each newly signed order such a definitive part of his governing style.
“He absolutely, positively, had to have them by Friday,” said Andy Boss, who manages business gift sales for A.T. Cross Co., based in Providence, Rhode Island. “My guess is he’s running low.”
A.T. Cross Co. custom-made pens designed for President Donald Trump, top, former President Barack Obama, center, and former President George W. Bush, below, featuring their signatures and presidential seals, rest side by side at the Cross Company Store in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Cross pens have been supplied to presidents at least since the Gerald Ford administration, said Boss, whose great-grandfather bought the writing instruments manufacturer a century ago. The company, sold to a private equity firm in 2013, was once a major Rhode Island employer but now makes most of its pens in China. It still tries to put an American imprint on the presidential pens, which are lacquered and engraved in China but go through their final assembly in Rhode Island using a mix of domestic and foreign parts.
President Barack Obama used the company’s pricier Townsend model to sign the Affordable Care Act in 2010 but later switched to the slimmer Century II, the same felt-tipped model wielded by Trump when he signed an action last month expressing his intent to repeal Obama’s health care law.
Trump’s transition team ordered its first 150 of the black-lacquered pens before the inauguration. The only features distinguishing Trump’s Century II pens from Obama’s are their engraved signatures and their metal plating: gold instead of chrome.
“It’s really just a personal preference,” Boss said. “Obviously, Trump loves gold.”
The White House didn’t return emailed requests for comment this week about the cost of the pens and whether it matters to Trump where the pens are made. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $115 per pen, but Boss said it’s sold to the White House through a third-party distributor that is likely to have offered a discount.
The company began working in October to design its 2017 presidential inauguration pens for Democrat Hillary Clinton, thinking she would be president. When Trump won November’s election, the company and its distributor dropped their work with the Democratic National Committee and sent samples to the Trump team instead.
Boss said the company hasn’t received much pushback over its work with Trump, who has used Cross pens to sign orders that have temporarily suspended the nation’s refugee program, blocked travel from seven Muslim-majority countries and expanded immigration enforcement, among other things.
Boss said he thinks Trump “could probably polish himself a little more and be a little more statesmanlike.” But he said the company has supplied pens to presidents of both parties.
“To me it doesn’t matter whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat. Just having a president using our pens is pretty cool,” Boss said. “I’d much rather him using our pens than somebody else’s.”
A.T. Cross Co. custom-made pens, designed for President Donald Trump, featuring his signature and presidential seals, are displayed together at the Cross Company Store in Providence, R.I. Trump chose the Cross Century II model, top, for deliveries to the White House over the Cross Townsend model, below. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)A.T. Cross Co., custom-made Cross Classic Century gold pen, featuring the signature of Hillary Clinton, and designed as a inaugural commemorative, rests on a paper tablet at the Cross Company Store in Providence, R.I. Andy Boss, of A.T. Cross Co., said a supplier to the Democratic National Committee initiated production of the the pens, though fewer than a dozen were produced by Cross. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)FILE – In this Friday, Feb. 3, 2017, file photo President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. It didn’t take long for President Donald Trump to start running out of the custom-made Cross pens he uses to sign all of his executive orders. “I think we’re going to need some more pens, by the way,” he said on inauguration day, after handing them out as souvenirs for lawmakers who attended his first signing ceremony. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
fountain pen users 