If you were an alien who touched down from outer space knowing nothing about American politics and you were forced to watch Donald Trump’s women-only town hall on Fox News on Wednesday morning, you could easily be bamboozled into thinking that Trump holds the sort of women-friendly family policy positions long championed by Democrats.
As has become typical, Trump’s statements were messy and confusing, but if you knew little about the issues at hand and listened to the raucous cheers of the audience, you might think he was supportive of a woman’s right to choose and access to I.V.F.
One woman questioned Trump about abortion. She stated plainly, “Women are entitled to do what they want to and need to do with their bodies.” And then she asked, “Why is the government involved in women’s basic rights?”
Trump responded by saying he personally believes in exceptions to abortion bans for rape, incest and the health of the mother, and repeated the lie that “everybody” wanted abortion to be a states-rights issue. “Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government,” he said. “What they wanted it was back in the states and that’s what we have it, and the states are going more liberal.” (In much of the country, they are not.)
To her credit, the host of the event, Harris Faulkner, quietly pushed back, saying, “Some of them are not.” But Trump — and his audience — didn’t appear to be listening.
He sounded similarly supportive when asked whether abortion bans would restrict access to I.V.F. “I got a call from Katie Britt, a young, fantastically attractive person from Alabama,” he said of the United States senator. He said that he didn’t know what I.V.F. was until she explained it to him, but once he knew what it was, he was totally in favor of it — he even called himself the “father of I.V.F.” “We want fertilization, and we’re out there on I.V.F. even more than them,” he said, referring to Democrats. (In recent months, congressional Republicans have blocked bills that would protect I.V.F. access.)
That Donald Trump is morally flexible enough to claim political beliefs that don’t match his party’s actual policy choices isn’t news. But what was especially surprising to me was how willing Fox News anchors and audiences are to pretend that Trump — and by extension the Republican Party — has always promoted women’s issues.
Kayleigh McEnany, whose show aired directly after the town hall, interviewed Faulkner in a sort of postgame wrap-up. Faulkner said, “Women absolutely have to be at the table when we talk about things like safety and abortion. And former President Trump said, ‘I’m so glad you asked that question. A woman does have the right for her body and then this is why I gave that right back to the states.’” I felt as if I was in an alternative universe — like the alien who dropped out of the sky.
I don’t think that the remaining persuadable voters will be swayed by this late-breaking swerve toward the center. As one Georgia woman, a 2020 Trump voter who was participating in a Times Opinion focus group, said of Kamala Harris: “She’s always been a voice for women. Trump, on the other hand, has not been really great on that point. Whatever he’s saying now is just for his political sake.”
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