Donald Trump delivered a campaign-trail message to House Republicans on abortion during their Thursday meeting: Lean into it as an issue for the states.
According to a person in the room who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, Trump urged fellow Republicans to hit Democrats as too radical on the issue, which he acknowledged hurt GOP candidates in 2022 after conservative Supreme Court justices ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Trump’s recommendation to his party: Talk about abortion access as a state issue, not a federal one, now that Roe’s reversal ended the national right to abortion — and try to turn it into a positive for the GOP.
The former president told lawmakers that “it’s left up to the states and that he supports the states’ handling of it,” Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) told reporters.
That view “didn’t land one way or the other” among lawmakers who were “respectfully listening,” Hill added.
Broadly speaking, several GOP members said Trump didn’t go too deeply into policymaking specifics as he touched on issues.
“I didn’t hear any agenda talk,” said Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), describing the private club confab as “a pep talk.”
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) agreed: “He talked about politics. … It was about winning.”
According to Carter and Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), however, Trump did touch on taxes — specifically, support for a change to how tipped workers’ wages are taxed.
