If you haven’t seen it yet, Donald Trump put out a video this morning in which he says a lot of gobbledegook, takes credit for overturning Roe v. Wade, and then says the abortion bans should be left up to individual states. We can draw the obvious intent: Republicans are terrified about the politics of abortion rights. He wants to take credit for overturning Roe and then say, essentially, my role is done now so leave me out of it. We will now see a lot of press tut-tutting toward anyone who points out the obvious point that Trump didn’t discuss the kind of blue-state abortion ban he has privately said he’ll support and sign if he’s reelected President. He avoids discussing plans to ban abortion drugs, which are now the primary way women get abortions in the country, or prevent them from being mailed to women in states with abortion bans.
The only real question here is whether or to what degree politicians or reporters will allow what is really a non-statement to let Trump sidestep this issue. The point of this statement is to get reporters to say “But Trump actually says …” whenever Democrats say that abortion is on the ballot in November or that Trump will pass a national abortion ban. Again, he’s not saying anywhere that he won’t sign a national abortion ban.
As an additional bonus, Trump signaled last night that his goal is simply to win the election and then he’ll do whatever he needs to once elected.
