Is Donald Trump backtracking on abortion?

Donald Trump’s stance against abortion is often cited by his supporters as a reason they voted for him. But to some, his comments on abortion Sunday on “Meet the Press” were a betrayal and a departure from decisions he made as president.

In May, Trump took credit for the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, saying on social media, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.” He added, “Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro life movement would have just kept losing.”

And it was Trump’s appointment of judges Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court that led to the decision that sent abortion restrictions back to the states.

But on “Meet the Press,” Trump spoke against Florida’s law banning abortion after six weeks, and said of his rival in the 2024 GOP presidential race, Gov. Ron DeSantis, “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”

And Trump told the show’s new host, Kristen Welker, that he would not sign federal legislation that would ban abortion nationwide at 15 weeks, a position supported by his former vice president, Mike Pence, who has said, “Every Republican candidate for president should support a ban on abortion before 15 weeks as a minimum nationwide standard.”

In the comments he made Sunday, Trump could be seeking to delineate his position on abortion from DeSantis, Pence and the rest of the GOP field. But he is risking alienating some supporters who were willing to overlook things they didn’t like about him in order to have a president who was strongly against abortion.

In the interview with Welker, Trump noted that under Roe, Americans were equally divided on the subject of abortion, and said the Dobbs decision finally gave abortion opponents a voice.

“Because of what’s been done, and because of the fact we brought it back to the states, we’re going to have people come together on this issue. They’re going to determine the time, because nobody wants to see five, six, seven, eight, nine months. Nobody wants to see abortions when you have a baby in the womb,” he said.

In the segment on abortion that went on for nearly 10 minutes, Trump went on to say that he wants to bring Republicans and Democrats together on the subject of abortion, to find a point of compromise “that’s going to make people happy.”

“I think both sides are going to like me,” he said.

Related

• Trump calls Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade a ‘win for life’

• Abortion numbers are up in 2023 compared to 2020

The remarks call to mind the optimism that Trump has about his ability to end the war in Ukraine; he has said that if he returns to office, he will bring both Ukraine and Russia to the table and have a solution within 24 hours. Such an outlook is in keeping with his general optimism, which he learned from his father, a devotee of the positive thinking mindset.

But America has been battling over abortion for more than 50 years, and the Dobbs decision did not bring abortion opponents and abortion supporters any closer to the point of compromise. Analysts say the “red wave” predicted in the midterms did not materialize in part because of Dobbs, and abortion is already shaping up to be an even bigger issue in 2024.

And Trump’s new conciliatory approach did not play well with abortion opponents on social media. Podcaster Liz Wheeler, for example, called it a “lose-lose position” and a “dumb move.”

Similarly, podcaster Matt Walsh said as a strategy, Trump’s seeming moderation on abortion is “incredibly stupid.”

“Where is the voter who would vote for Trump if only he becomes more liberal on abortion? Have you met this mythical voter? I haven’t. Such a person doesn’t exist,” Walsh wrote on X.

Despite repeated questions from Welker, Trump did not say whether he would sign a federal ban for any stage of abortion, instead saying, “I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.”

He also dodged Welker’s question about whether a fetus has constitutional rights, and said that Republicans “speak very inarticulately” on the subject of abortion and need to be able to come up with a point in pregnancy that most people can rally around.

“Other than certain parts of the country, you can’t — you’re not going to win on this issue. But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks,” he said.

To some analysts, that makes sense. Social scientist Ryan Burge noted that the composition of the GOP is in flux, and 44% of Republicans seldom or never attend church. Burge wrote for Politico last week that Trump “can afford some erosion of his support from evangelicals” and said Sunday that Trump’s position is “strategically beneficial.”

But the Rev. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said Monday on his podcast that if the GOP backs away from abortion as a key issue — if it “loses its pro-life convictions” — he believes “you’re going to see conservative Christians just back out of support for the Republican Party.”

The one thing in which Trump may not lose support over, however, is changing his position over time. As NBC reported in 2022, both Trump and President Joe Biden have seemingly evolved in how they have talked about abortion on “Meet the Press” over the years.

Trump told Tim Russert in 1999 that he hated the idea of abortion, but he called himself “very pro-choice.” In 1982, Biden voted for a constitutional amendment that would have let states enact abortion restrictions.