President Trump has encountered a problem in supply lines as he dashes off one executive order after another – he is running out of high-end pens.

Trump's fast-paced presidency, which he defended in a meandering press conference Thursday, has featured a flurry of executive actions – including an immigration order that has hit a wall in the courts.

The president gamely shows off each executive action he signs, and sometimes doles out pens to lawmakers when he inks paperwork for nominations.

It didn't take long for the president to start running out of the custom-made Cross pens he uses to sign executive orders.

The company recently dispatched a rush order of 350 of its custom pens.

BLUE ALERT: President Donald Trump hands his pen to Representative Bill Huizenga (2nd L), Republican of Michigan, after signing House Joint Resolution 41, which removes some Dodd-Frank regulations on oil and gas companies. The White House placed a rush order for additional pens

Part of the supply problem: as recently as October, the company, like much of the country, was anticipating a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton.

'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.

The Clinton pens were made by the request of a supplier to the Democratic National Committee. Just a dozen got made.

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, 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)

WATCH AND LEARN: President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Vice President Mike Pence looks on at the White House in Washington, DC

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington

SOME WILL ROB YOU WITH A SIX GUN: President Donald Trump hands coal miners the pen he used to sign a bill eliminating regulations on the mining industry in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington

'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.'

The problem doesn't seem to be that the president is staying up late penning speeches in longhand. The shortage instead appears to be driven by Trump's propensity to dole out the pens to lawmakers and associates.

On on the day of his inauguration, he gave each member of the congressional leadership a pen to match a formal nomination. Senator Charles Schumer started a round of jokes and pen-trading when he expressed a preference from a nomination besides that of Ben Carson, the Health and Human Services secretary.

Trump handed another pen to Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan as he penned an order to roll back financial protections put in place by Congress after the financial crisis under President Obama.

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.

IT TAKES A PEN: President Donald Trump holds up one of the executive actions that he signed in the Oval Office on January 28, 2017 in Washington, DC. The actions outline a reorganization of the National Security Council

GOOD WRITING SURFACE: President Donald Trump signs the first of three Executive Orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, January 23, 2017. They concerned the withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a US Government hiring freeze for all departments but the military, and "Mexico City" which bans federal funding of abortions overseas

COLLECTOR'S ITEM: A 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)

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.

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)

In this Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, photo 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)

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.'