National Review Bashes Trump Over ‘Empty’ Abortion Punt, Predicts He Will Blame a 2024 Loss on Pro-Lifers
AP Photo/Terry Renna
National Review put presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on blast over his announcement that he did not favor imposing any national restrictions on abortion in an editorial published Tuesday morning.
“The Democrats’ position, however appalling and deceptive, is at least a position. Trump is transparently trying to avoid taking one,” asserted the conservative magazine’s editors.
They continued:
“Always go with your heart, but we must win,” he said, in a bit of empty rhetoric that accurately summarized what preceded it. Trump wants to leave abortion to state electorates while declining even to advocate that they protect life. Trump was specific about which abortions he would permit — those for rape, for incest, and to save a mother’s life — but declined to endorse or even mention any proposal to protect unborn children, even one as limited as a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
“Trump repeatedly said, ‘You must follow your heart on this issue,’ and in saying so, he is partly aligning himself with America’s median opinion on abortion, which places sentiment above philosophical consistency,” added the editorial. “But he is also reflecting his party’s overwrought fear of pro-choice voters. The fact remains that during the vaunted pro-choice backlash of the past two years, not one pro-life senator or governor has lost his office in an election. Republicans retook the House mere months after Dobbs.”
The piece ended with its authors conceding that it is “reasonable” to argue that pro-life positions have cost Republicans elections in recent years. “But of course it is also true that Trump himself and his various manias have cost Republicans elections,” they concluded. “If it happens again, we can be sure he will blame it on pro-lifers.”
While National Review has taken to criticizing the former president often throughout his political career, Trump also faced pushback from his own former running mate Mike Pence and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for his new tack on abortion.
