Donald Trump’s plan for a 16-week, national abortion ban wasn’t supposed to be public. Democrats are ready to pounce

LATE LAST WEEK, the New York Times reported that Donald Trump privately told his allies he backs a 16-week national abortion ban with some exceptions. Inside the Trump campaign, the news was immediately met with deep annoyance, anger, and a scramble for damage control, two people familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone.

Prior to the report, the former president and 2024 GOP frontrunner had repeatedly stressed to advisers that he wants to avoid announcing specific abortion policy positions, at least during this stage of the election cycle, sources close to him say. This is, of course, largely because he understands the dismantling of Roe v. Wade — which he engineered — has become a grave political liability for Republicans.

Members of Trump’s senior staff were maddened by the leak to the Times, venting to one another that whoever blabbed to the media about this wasn’t being helpful, the two sources recount. They weren’t the only ones upset by it: The report also served to inflame some of the anti-abortion movement’s most uncompromising figures, who lashed out at Trump for being insufficiently “pro-life.” Some Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill winced at the news too; they, like Trump, hoped to spend the first half of 2024 talking about abortion as little as possible, according to one GOP lawmaker who bemoaned the recent string of conservatives’ election losses that have largely been attributed to “the Dobbs effect.” Democrats, on the other hand, were thrilled.

  • PugJesus
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    2310 months ago

    anyone on the other side of the people who control the military are fucked.

    That’s how it generally goes. But in a civil war, the loyalties of the military are often divided as well.

    • @ComicalMayhem
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      810 months ago

      fair point tbh, but I’ve seen (from my personal experience) the military and it’s leaders are mostly conservative. idk much about civil wars and how they begin though; I’d assume we need people in strong political positions to lead a concerted opposition, no? otherwise it’s less civil war and more rebellion/revolution?

      • Jaysyn
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        10 months ago

        the military and it’s leaders are mostly conservative.

        The very last poll that Star & Stripes published before Trump shuttered it (due to that poll) showed that 1/2 of the enlisted & most of the officers didn’t like Trump at all.

      • @[email protected]
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        1510 months ago

        My experience is hardly exhaustive, but I’ve known a lot of military folks who hate Trump. I couldn’t say what their political leanings are (certainly not far left, you know?), but I think even among conservative soldiers and particularly among the leadership, you’d find people unwilling to go along with Trump.

        That being said, I sure as fuck don’t want to find out.

        • @NocturnalMorning
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          10 months ago

          Yeah, same. I don’t really want to find how such a scenario would play out, but we are very much approaching such a situation. It really sucks that there are external actors that are trying to stoke the flames of this, but it’s our own doing really. We didn’t deal with this shit back during the first Civil war, and now we’re dealing with the consequences. I don’t know that I’d stay in the country if a civil war erupted, but you bet your ass I’d be out there picketing for the first time in my life if a national abortion ban went into effect.

      • @meco03211
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        1110 months ago

        I feel like there will be “support” for a civil war until those people actually experience it. They imagine a bunch of other people will do the fighting and they get to sit back as only the “other side” will suffer. Once they start realizing the consequences, support will quickly wane.

        • @NocturnalMorning
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          610 months ago

          Only people low in the intelligence department think a civil war won’t affect them at all.

          • norbert
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            610 months ago

            Approx 1/3 of the populace is absolutely paste-eating stupid.

            • @NocturnalMorning
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              10 months ago

              Yeah, I figured that out when we couldn’t wear a piece of fabric over our face during covid bcz mUy FrEedum…