As he struggles to keep the cash flowing, Trump hands Democrats a win on abortion

“We have abortion where everybody wanted it.”

That was what Donald Trump saidon Monday. Two years after the fall of Roe vs Wade and multiple states running referenda and trying out potential bans on abortion, it was a perplexing stance for the presidential candidate to take. It’s also a stance that puts the GOP squarely on defence for the remainder of the election cycle.

Trump made the declaration in a prepared video message posted to his Truth Social platform early Monday morning. By noon, it had already been denounced by both his political rival, Joe Biden, and Trump’s supposed allies, the anti-abortion right.

Right where everybody wants it, indeed.

The ex-president’s outlining of his views on reproductive freedom are the culmination of nearly a decade of fence-sitting. Having previously declared himself “very pro-choice” in a 1999 interview, Trump finds himself once again balancing a desire to maintain his close ties with the evangelical right and what can be assumed is his view of the palatability of abortion politics in America. His latest statement is, importantly, a sign that the former president recognises a national abortion ban is a political death sentence for the Republican Party’s chances in national elections, where swing districts decide the fate of the House, Senate and presidency.

It’s not exactly a secret how the fate of “abortion bans” and the politicians who support them fare in such cases. Just ask Kari Lake, Tudor Dixon, Dr Mehmet Oz or any number of other Republican politicians whose efforts to placate the far right left them losing at the ballot box. Or look to the Virginia legislative elections in 2023, when Glenn Youngkin suffered a political defeat as his party lost control of the legislature