"But, as many commentators pointed out, Pelosi was only doing what many politicians before her have done – including one Donald J Trump:
Barack Obama used 22 pens to sign his landmark healthcare law. Lyndon Johnson is said to have used 75 to sign the Civil Rights Act. The tradition goes back to at least Franklin Roosevelt, as Time explained in 2010: “The pen used to sign legislation itself becomes a historical artifact. The more pens a president uses, the more thank-you gifts he can offer to those who helped create that piece of history.”
In fact, as Guardian political reporter Lauren Gambino pointed out, commemorative pens were used in a very analogous situation in the late 1990s: the impeachment of Bill Clinton. In that case, senators who signed a pledge to be impartial received pens that accidentally dubbed them “Untied States senators”.
