President Donald Trump veered off-script yet again during a Cabinet meeting, casually recalling a conversation with the CEO of a major company that didn’t sound right according to his administration and press in the room, exchanging looks. Trump made a detour mid-rant, as talk of government sp ending gave way to a strangely specific story that didn’t quite land the way he seemed to expect. President Donald Trump’s lengthy story about Sharpie markers was reportedly a figment of his imagination. (Photo by Annabelle Gordon/AFP via Getty Images) ‘Never Happened’: Trump Posts Late-Night Message Thinking It’s Genius — Quickly Becomes the Joke When It’s Clear He Had No Idea What It Meant Footage from a March 26 Cabinet meeting shows Trump slipping into one of his familiar tangents, pivoting from complaints about government spending to an oddly specific rant about “inexpensive” pens that write well. Sitting between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the president stated while holding a black permanent marker in his hand “Sharpie,” Trump abruptly shouted out, sparking laughter in the room. He then huffed about the official White House pens supposedly costing $1000 that didn’t write well. Trump alleged that he was so fed up that he got on a call with the CEO and told him, “‘I’d like to use your pen, but I can’t have a gray thing with a big S on it saying Sharpie as I’m signing a trillion-dollar airplane contract to buy brand new fighter jets,'” Trump. The POTUS said the “guy” called him “sir” after offering to paint the pen black and put the White House on it. Trump: You see this pen right here? This pen is very inexpensive. But it writes well. I like it. Sharpie. I came here. They had $1,000 pens. You hand out pens. You hand them to people. 30, 40 people. They were $1,000 a piece. Beautiful pen, ball point. I hand out to kids that… pic.twitter.com/mrEXypiA0o— Acyn (@Acyn) March 26, 2026 Apparently, that supposed conversation between Trump and a Sharpie executive never happened, says a spokesperson for the company, who shut down his evidently fabricated anecdote. “We don’t have any information about the conversation described,” a representative from Newell Brands told The Washington Post. “We’re proud to be a beloved brand trusted by so many globally.” Was Trump purposely misleading the public with one of his personal obsessions, or has he lost a few steps mentally? Commenters online weighed in on his latest aimless statements. “Jesus Christ. Why aren’t we putting this senile fool into a nursing home?” one Trump critic wondered. Another poster wrote, “OMG, this is too much! He is lying now about a Sharpie pen.” A third person posted, “Just lies like normal for Trump. Everything he says is a made-up story or pipe dream.” “That was a long way to go to make up a stupid lie. I feel sorry for all the suckers who had to listen to it.” Another person said, “Oh my god! You timed it? Five minutes? Goodnight Nurse! It’s his life and time.” Trump’s well-established narcissism and spitefulness were hinted at when one X account jokingly warned, “Sharpie, that’s your hint to ‘gift’ him a shiny new trinket or he will find a way to sanction or defund your business.” Alabama was going to be hit or grazed, and then Hurricane Dorian took a different path (up along the East Coast). The Fake News knows this very well. That’s why they’re the Fake News!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2019 This was not the first time Trump has been embroiled in controversy involving markers. Seven years ago, during his first presidential term, a pending weather disaster generated national news following an Oval Office briefing. In September 2019, Trump sent the science community into chaos when he used a marker to alter an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map to include Alabama as part of the trajectory of Hurricane Dorian, despite the National Weather Service reporting that Dorian would not hit the Southern state. When Trump was directly asked by the press how the Sharpie mark ended up on the NOAA map, he responded, “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” As a result of that blatant misinformation, #SharpieGate became a trending topic on Twitter at the time. Trump later doubled down on the false narrative by blaming the media in a tweet that read, “Alabama was going to be hit or grazed, and then Hurricane Dorian took a different path (up along the East Coast). The Fake News knows this very well. That’s why they’re the Fake News!” ‘Oh My God! Nurse!’: Trump Shares Wild Story to Impress Allies, Betting No One Would Check — Then They Did, and the White House Is Left Scrambling ...read more read less