Trump struggles to navigate defining 2024 campaign issue: Abortion

By Alayna Treene and Kristen Holmes, CNN

(CNN) — A year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – a decision largely made possible by Donald Trump – the former president finds himself struggling with how to navigate one of the defining issues of the 2024 presidential campaign: abortion.

And it isn’t going unnoticed.

Anti-abortion activists have watched nervously as Trump dodges questions on how he would handle a federal abortion ban. Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his chief rival in the GOP presidential primary, has sought to outflank Trump on the issue and has embraced it as a key feature of his campaign.

Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his time in the White House made him the architect of the post-Dobbs world, a decision that thrilled a huge faction of the Republican Party and many of the evangelical Christian voters Trump has viewed as central to both his 2016 presidential win and his 2024 campaign.

Yet even as he wants to take credit for the decision that changed the political and legal landscape of abortion, the former president has privately blamed abortion hard-liners for the party’s lackluster 2022 midterm results and attempted to largely steer clear of the issue on the campaign trail, offering only a series of muddled responses when pressed on whether he would sign a federal abortion bill into law – something many within the conservative movement see as the next frontier in this fight.

“What I’ll do is negotiate so people are happy,” Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins during the network’s town hall in New Hampshire last month.

In this post-Dobbs world, Trump has told allies and advisers that abortion isn’t a winning campaign issue for Republicans, and that tacking too far to the right on abortion policy could end up costing him support from key voters – particularly among suburban White women, a demographic he has long coveted.

CNN interviewed five people close to Trump who have spoken at length with the former president about his anti-abortion views. Many of them described Trump’s current refusal to publicly back a national ban as being driven by his own political instincts – and a desire to avoid a political landmine.

“Trump will do and say whatever he needs to do to win the nomination. He doesn’t think coming out for a federal ban is a good idea politically,” one of the sources said.

Behind closed doors, Trump and his advisers have acknowledged they need to broaden his base if he is going to win not only the GOP nomination, but the general election, and they fear alienating large swaths of voters with harsh language around abortion.

“This is all just Trump driven, of him not wanting to step into a general election trap,” a Trump ally told CNN.

Some Trump advisers insisted the former president is aware of the importance of supporting a national ban on abortion, particularly in the primary, as other GOP candidates like DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have sought to run to the right of the former president on the issue. And Trump remains eager to take credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade and use his role to prove his conservative chops in certain circles.

“Multiple things can be true at once,” an adviser to the former president said. “He was the best president for the pro-life movement in history. He supports exceptions. He does not oppose a federal role, but he also doesn’t think it is a winning issue.”

Trump has so far refused to answer whether or not he supports a federal ban on abortion, but he may be forced to face the issue directly sooner rather than later.

The former president’s ambiguity on the issue will be front and center this weekend, when the 2024 GOP presidential contenders gather at the Road to Majority conference in Washington, DC. The Faith and Freedom Coalition, the organizers behind the event, characterize the conference as “the largest public policy gathering of conservative and Christian activists in the nation.”

The topic of abortion will be a crucial focus of the conference, event organizers tell CNN, and when Trump takes the stage on Saturday, many will be watching if he uses the opportunity to clarify his position or finally come out in support of a national abortion ban.

Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a longtime Trump ally, told CNN, “Republicans have to get off their back heels and get on offense” regarding abortion.

As for where the party – and its eventual presidential nominee – will land on the issue, Reed said, “It’s going to be a highly organic process among the candidates, their campaigns, the pro-life movement, and the Republican Party that will likely land at a message that stresses most action at the state level, some commonsense federal standard & a ban on taxpayer funding of abortion. Then hammer away at how extreme the liberals’ position is.”

“The politics of abortion, like all politics, is simple: when you’re explaining, you’re losing,” he added.

DeSantis, who will address the conference on Friday, signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida earlier this year – a measure that goes further than the 15-week ban being embraced by many other Republicans and which Trump has described as “too harsh.” The ban still faces an additional hurdle at the Florida Supreme Court, which is considering a challenge to the state’s 15-week ban enacted last year. The six-week ban will not go into effect until after the court rules in the case.

Regardless, DeSantis is expected to tout the passage of that bill during his keynote address, a source familiar with his remarks tells CNN.

The Florida governor has also heavily criticized Trump’s unwillingness so far to back a federal ban and recently told “The 700 Club” that he believes the former president has gone soft on the issue.

Anti-abortion leaders attempt to intervene

Some Trump allies and conservative leaders who, like DeSantis, have taken note of Trump’s vague rhetoric on abortion politics, recently attempted to intervene.

Anti-abortion leaders huddled with the former president at his Mar-a-Lago home in May and tried to convince him to solidify his stance on the issue and embrace a 15-week national abortion ban. Trump, however, refused to do so, even as some of his top advisers and allies have told him he will ultimately need to support such a measure, sources familiar with the talks tell CNN.

The meeting was arranged by Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, the crafter of a 15-week abortion bill, and included Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

It served in part as an attempt for Dannenfelser to smooth things over with the former president after she publicly criticized his 2024 campaign for saying abortion should be decided at the state level, saying it was a “morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate to hold.”

The anti-abortion leaders also used the meeting to try and persuade Trump to take a harder-line position on abortion. According to two sources with direct knowledge of the events, Dannenfelser, Perkins and Graham walked the former president through polling that showed a majority of voters think abortion should be limited after the first trimester.

Trump made clear that whatever position he ultimately takes must include exceptions for the life of the mother, rape and incest – a distinction he believes is crucial to remaining politically popular – but refused to commit to a federal abortion ban.

“[Trump told them] that rather than get hung up on 12 weeks, 15 weeks, 16 weeks, his threshold is when the baby can feel pain,” one of the sources said.

Following the meeting, Dannenfelser issued a statement calling it a “terrific” session and gave a vague indication that Trump would support some sort of federal action.

But just days later, Trump again cast uncertainty onto his stance, declining to say at what point in a pregnancy abortion should be outlawed.

“Some people are at six weeks, some people are at three weeks, two weeks,” Trump said at CNN’s town hall. “President Trump is going to make a determination what he thinks is great for the country.”

Some Trump advisers acknowledge the former president’s response lacked clarity, which means he will need to address the issue more directly as the campaign moves forward. When he does, some allies say they expect he will ultimately support a federal ban.

“Trump will probably commit to 15 weeks by the end of the campaign, but he knows Congress can’t pass it, and he doesn’t want to piss people off,” a source close to the former president said following the town hall.

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