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Donald Trump is a liar, but he has told the truth at least once: Running for president in 2016, he promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would automatically overturn Roe v. Wade. Trump did just that by putting Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett on the bench. But nowas he campaigns to return to the White House, and as his party continues to pay for the Dobbs decision at the ballot boxhe appears to be trying to rewrite recent history.

Rolling Stone reports the former president has privately discussed plans recently to campaign as a moderate on abortion, seeking to avoid discussing reproductive rights in the hardline terms of GOP primary rivals like Ron DeSantis and instead stake out a position that makes both Republicans and Democrats very happy. The fall of Roe, hes apparently told aides, has eliminated any leverage the anti-abortion conservatives had over him.

The [anti-abortion] activists who thought they could force Donald Trump to commit political suicide were deeply mistaken, a Republican associated with Trumps campaign told the outlet. These were all-or-nothing types who should realize that he doesnt need them. They need him.

Trump's effort to rebrand as an abortion moderate is, by all means, absurd. Not only does it defy his prior statements on the issue, including his suggestion in the 2016 cycle that there should be some form of punishment for women who seek abortions; it attempts to underplay the outsize role Trump played in ending the federal right to an abortion, as he even acknowledged earlier this year. After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v Wade, Trump wrote on his social media page in May.

Of course, that was before voters showed Republicans what they thought of the Dobbs decision and the talk of a national abortion ban in this months off-year elections: In yet another cycle, Democrats outperformed expectations, riding reproductive rights to victories in Virginia and Kentucky. In Ohio, a key swing state, voters approved a ballot measure to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. And a recent NBC News poll found that abortion and democracy were top concerns for single-issue voters in 2024. His supposed moderate positionwhatever that is supposed to meanis nothing more than a transparent effort to avoid the fate of Republicans who lost on the issue in 2022 and 2023. Lets be clear: Donald Trump is responsible for ending Roe v. Wade, Joe Biden wrote in September. And if you vote for him, hell go even further.

That should be obvious, but Trump has a knack for muddying the waters. I havent seen Trump say something either way on abortion, one Trump voter in bellwether Pennsylvania told the New York Times earlier this month. He doesnt seem to care either way and thats fine with me, she added. I dont think Trump was responsible for the Supreme Courts decision, another swing-state voter, from Michigan, told the outlet. I honestly think that Trump is just for less government and states rights, and Im fine with that.

With a close race expected in 2024, Democrats shouldnt take their advantage with pro-choice voters for granted. They must, as my colleague Molly Jong-Fast argued earlier this month, continue to hammer Republicansand Trump specificallyon abortion.

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Donald Trump's Abortion About-Face Is Cynical as Ever - Vanity Fair