Concessions on Everything But Ego

In throwing the pro-life movement under the bus, Donald Trump reminds us that only his feelings are non-negotiable.

On this week’s No BS Zone, Bernie and I touched on Donald Trump’s recent position change on the issue of abortion. It wasn’t the first, of course.

Prior to entering politics Trump proudly described himself as “very pro-choice,” but as a Republican presidential candidate in 2016, he sang a much different tune. He insisted he was pro-life, ran on defunding Planned Parenthood, and eventually promised to nominate conservative Supreme Court justices. At one point, he even went as far as advocating for “some form of punishment” for women who’d had an abortion, and the same for doctors who performed them.

I think most people understood at the time that his conversion was neither sincere nor based in moral principle. It was a political calculation by a lifelong womanizer and serial adulterer who may have even paid for a few abortions himself over the years. But as president, when he was presented with an unexpected three Supreme Court vacancies in a single term, he delivered on his nomination promises. Roe v. Wade was overturned after he left office, and the politics surrounding the issue were turned on their head because of it.

Trump recognized this, of course. In 2022 he deflected criticism of himself for massive GOP midterm losses onto the pro-life movement. He claimed that the widely predicted “red wave” never materialized because Republicans had poorly navigated the post-Roe political environment he had helped make possible. He began staking out a new abortion position for himself, distancing himself from future Federalist Society court picks, and trashing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s six-week abortion ban as a “terrible thing and a terrible mistake.” He even withheld support of a far more permissive 15-week approach.

Trump finally completed his latest evolution in a video earlier this week, avoiding the endorsement of any abortion restrictions, effectively voicing neutrality on the issue, and calling on states to decide their laws. He furthermore told Americans to "follow your heart" and "do what's right for yourself."

In other words, Trump is pro-choice again… at least by the standards established long ago by the pro-life movement. And frankly, it was the politically smart move.

The new position can only help Trump in November. It may well blunt planned political attacks, and it’s broadly in line with most voters’ sentiments on the issue. And despite some pro-life groups expressing disappointment over Trump’s about-face, it’s hard to imagine that social and evangelical conservatives, who’ve already made an extraordinary number of moral exemptions for Trump over the years, will withhold their support of him this time.

As was this case with entitlement reform in 2016, and later free-trade capitalism and “peace through strength” foreign policy, Trump hopes to jettison the issue from political contention. Just like he hasn’t had any problem throwing fiscal and foreign-policy conservatives under the bus, he’s happy to do the same with the pro-life movement… now that it has expended its political usefulness. And why not? It’s not as if he ever pays a political price on the right for capitulating to liberal sensibilities.

While none of this surprises me, I do find it rather telling that — while Trump is perfectly at ease deviating from longtime party positions, and waffling on major political stances — he has thus far held firm (and even doubled-down) on the items most politically damaging to him. I’m talking about things like election denialism, championing and promising pardons for January 6 criminals, and attacking mail balloting.

It’s not Trump alone, of course. The RNC, under his daughter-in-law Lara, has been sending out scripted phone-calls to voters that accuse Democrats of committing “massive fraud” in 2020, while additional Republican leaders are referring to the Jan. 6 prisoners as “hostages.”

Relitigating the 2020 election, and reminding voters of Trump’s efforts to overturn U.S. democracy and his provocation of violence at the U.S. Capitol, is a blueprint for Trump losing the 2024 election. That’s why the Democrats are making it a key part of their campaign strategy, and they can only pray that Trump talks more of his supporters out of banking votes for him, via mail ballots, in the run-up to election day.

To (kind of) steal a line from the late singer Meatloaf, Trump “would do anything for votes, but he won't do that.” And by “that,” I mean anything that damages his self-esteem. Policy positions, principles, moral stances, fitness to serve, and even adherence to the Constitution are entirely expendable in the interest of political success for Trump… but the one thing that’s entirely off the table is his personal ego.

And since nurturing Trump’ ego is unfortunately the primary purpose of today’s GOP, prioritized high above everything else (including winning elections), righties can expect even more moral and ideological concessions to the left going forward.

Sadly, in our increasingly post-issues political landscape, most won’t care.