Weeks of hesitation, pressure, and careful planning went into Trump’s most recent hint about an abortion.

TFD – Dive into the recent surprise from Trump as he hints at a more assertive stance on abortion, a topic that has long been contentious in American politics. Discover the background, implications, and reactions to this unexpected shift.

When asked about the impending six-week abortion ban in his home state of Florida, Donald Trump made an unexpected statement on Tuesday.

“We intend to release a statement regarding abortion the following week,” the former president informed reporters in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

His team was forced to weigh in on one of the most sensitive and divisive topics in American politics as a result of the casual comment. Some in his campaign were unaware of it, as they had just hours before issued a statement regarding the Florida law in which they expressed nebulous support for states’ rights and “preserving life.”

Ever since he announced his third presidential campaign, Trump has had to deal with the political aftermath from the landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in a radical shift in the nation’s abortion laws due to his takeover of the US Supreme Court. Trump steered clear of the subject for the majority of the Republican primary, and when he did speak, he occasionally infuriated pro-abortion leaders by denouncing the flurry of additional limitations put in place by party members in reaction to the historic ruling.

Now that he faces an election against a Democratic opponent who is ready to use every pregnancy horror story resulting from new state-level abortion restrictions against him, Trump is slowly moving toward adopting a public position on what he calls a “political loser.” According to multiple conversations with Trump’s advisers and allies, the president has been discussing his approach with advisers and friends for weeks. Meanwhile, some of his top policy aides have been quietly drafting the contours of a position that will attempt the seemingly impossible: embracing one of the most contentious legacies of his first term without risking a chance at a second.

Where exactly he ends up is still unknown. The 15-week threshold is something that “people are agreeing” to, according to Trump, who has been toying with the idea in private since last year. He has previously stated that states ought to make the final decision.

Trump’s longtime loyalists, including Kellyanne Conway, one of his top former aides, have recently urged him to support this approach. One source acquainted with the encounter said that last month, during dinner on the patio of Mar-a-Lago, Conway pushed Trump to openly endorse federal legislation restricting access to abortion by setting a precise threshold into a pregnancy. “I don’t push President Trump to do anything,” Conway said to CNN in response to a request for comment. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Faith and Freedom Coalition leader Ralph Reed have offered similar advice in their meetings with Trump.

“I told him, what would you do if you wanted to bring people together, like he talks about doing? Where is the kind of sweet spot, after all? And I think that’s what he’s thinking about. The sweet spot, just from polling, is 15, 16 weeks,” Graham told CNN in an interview. “He talks about trying to bring the country together and form a consensus. Well, when you look and see where the consensus is at, [a 15- or 16-week ban] is where it’s at.” (Polls typically show a majority of Americans support access to abortion in all or most cases, though they are open to some restrictions depending on how the question is asked.)

However, some of Trump’s closest allies are worried that if he supports any further abortion restrictions, it will give Democrats more leverage. The campaign of President Joe Biden began running advertisements in swing areas this week that included a videotape of Trump declaring that he was “proud” to have “terminated” Roe v. Wade.

Trump has received advice from some allies that it would be wise politically to defer the battle over reproductive rights to the states.

However, many members of Trump’s team have admitted in the hours following his unexpected statement on Tuesday that it is now impossible to maintain a neutral stance on the matter given that Democrats are using it as the focal point of their White House defense and numerous contests nationwide. The attempt was made more difficult this week when the Florida Supreme Court approved a referendum for the November ballot that will let voters there—including Trump, a resident of the Sunshine State—decide whether or not the right to an abortion should be guaranteed by the state constitution.

An adviser to Trump told CNN that “it was bound to happen at some point where he needed to clarify his position.” “The Democrats are focusing heavily on abortion as the issue they will attack us on. It follows that he would eventually have to clarify his position on the matter.

Either do it right away or later. The advisor said, “I believe it’s probably preferable to do it now from a PR aspect.

Trump vacillates over his stance

Regarding abortion, Trump and his advisors have been evading the topic for months while trying to figure out how to move forward with it—a topic he has been uncomfortable circling about for the past year.

The former president told Fox News last month he would be making a decision “pretty soon” on supporting a national abortion ban, adding, “I would like to see if we could make both sides happy.”

A few days later, during another interview on conservative media, he suggested a 15-week suspension.

“I’m considering that, and it will result in something that makes sense,” Trump stated on the radio program “Sid & Friends in the Morning” in New York.

Multiple interactions with Trump’s aides indicate that the former president’s words took them off guard both times. They initially downplayed the former president’s remarks, stressing that they had no intentions to implement policy addressing abortion anytime soon.

However, a person familiar with Trump’s work revealed to CNN that his senior policy advisors, Ross Worthington and Vincent Haley in particular, have been secretly working on a document addressing the problem behind the scenes.

According to the source, Haley and Worthington also conferred with Conway and other external allies to get advice on the matter.

“Throughout the last year and a half, she’s been pushing either a federal ban or urging him to come out and support Lindsey Graham’s original bill,” one of the sources said about Conway. Graham’s bill, which was first introduced not long after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade almost two years ago, would outlaw abortion at 15 weeks, the point at which he believes a baby can feel pain, with the exception of situations in which the mother’s life is in danger or in which the woman becomes pregnant as a result of rape or incest.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life and other anti-abortion organizations have increased their pressure on Trump. According to a person familiar with the discussions, leaders of these organizations have maintained that he should openly state the kinds of policies he would support in order to provide the people that supported his election in 2016 clarity about his positions.

In private, Trump has discussed abortion policy with allies and has occasionally looked conflicted. He has expressed support for a federal ban while simultaneously praising states’ rights; these opposing views are a reflection of the contradicting advice he is getting.

In a statement on Tuesday regarding Florida’s six-week ban, Trump’s campaign spokesperson Brian Hughes stated that the presumed Republican nominee “supports preserving life but has also made clear that he supports states’ rights because he supports the voters’ right to make decisions for themselves.” This was prior to Trump adding his voice from Michigan.

Abortion politics

Since entering the Republican presidential contest for the first time in 2015, Trump has found it difficult to express his opinions.

He often expresses to individuals close to him his opinion that the subject is a “political loser” for Republicans, especially in a general election. For similar reasons, he referred to Florida’s six-week restriction as “a terrible mistake.” At a February gathering in Nashville, Tennessee, he told a group of Christians and religious broadcasters that “you have to get people elected” when it came to the abortion problem.

However, since Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court during his presidential administration, he frequently claims credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

“That after 50 years of effort, I was able to overturn Roe v. Wade. Their 50 years of service is unmatched in my experience. They were successful, and I was even more honored to have done it, Trump remarked during a CNN town hall the previous year. The only reason we are in a strong negotiation position at this time is due to my abilities.

Trump was regularly pressured to express his views on abortion by anti-abortion supporters like Graham, Reed, and SBA Pro-Life President Marjorie Dannenfelser during the Republican primary, when many of his rivals were announcing strong positions in favor of a nationwide ban. The three urged him to accept a 15-week ban at a meeting held at Mar-a-Lago in May of last year, as CNN previously revealed.

At the time, some of Trump’s advisors warned him that he would eventually have to back the bill or risk criticism from conservative voters. This was especially true in Iowa, where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was courting the state’s evangelical population by taking a more conservative stance on the matter. Motivated by his own political instincts and a wish to steer clear of an electoral minefield following the nominating fight, Trump declined.

However, Trump’s advisors had a change of heart once he won the GOP nomination. According to interviews with several of Trump’s top aides, while they believed that supporting an abortion ban could help him in the primary, they now feel that doing so in a general election will hurt rather than help with important vote blocs, such as suburban women.

Trump shocked his advisors by abruptly indicating that he was prepared to adopt a more assertive stance, though it is unclear exactly what that would entail.