Trump Can't Run From His Biggest Accomplishment: Overturning Roe

Trump stressed the issue has become a matter for the states. But some of the swing states—where he will have to campaign—already have immoderate abortion bans.

Yesterday, we at the Washington Monthly published our April/May/June print issue, featuring a 360-degree, 12-article exploration of "Who Got More Done"—Joe Biden or Donald Trump—as president.

Also yesterday, Trump said in a video statement, "I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of something that all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and, in fact, demanded be ended: Roe v. Wade."

Trump's claim that he merely carried out a demand from a bipartisan consensus of legal scholars is farcical. The driving force behind the end of Roe was Trump.

Shortly after he wrapped up the Republican nomination in May 2016, Trump brazenly published a list of conservative judges he promised to use when making Supreme Court picks.

Then, during the October 19, 2016 debate, when asked if he wanted to "see the Court overturn Roe v. Wade," Trump answered, "if we put another two or perhaps three justices on ... that’ll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court."

And that is what happened.

When the Washington Monthly team compared the accomplishments of Biden and Trump—from the perspective of what the two presidents wanted to accomplish, not what the Monthly wanted to see them accomplish—we concluded that Biden was the more successful overall, but Trump had the decided edge in a few areas: the courts, social issues, and taxes.

The end of Roe looms incredibly large in Trump's wins regarding the courts and social issues. Few presidential accomplishments, for good or for ill, have such immediate personal impact.

Eradicating federal abortion rights is not just one thing Trump did among many, but a legacy-defining policy achievement. Perhaps the legacy-defining policy achievement.

When you think of Barack Obama's presidency, you think of Obamacare. When you think of George W. Bush's presidency, you think of the Iraq war. When you think of Trump's presidency, you should think of the end of Roe.

Yet Trump is clearly uncomfortable fully embracing his achievement and all of its consequences.

Yes, Trump just claimed to be "proudly the person responsible" for ending Roe, but he does not show the same pride for any of the specific state abortion bans now in place because of the end of Roe.

During the 2024 primaries, he called Florida's soon-to-be in effect six-week ban "a terrible thing and a terrible mistake" and blamed abortion for the GOP's underwhelming performance in the 2022 midterms.

And in yesterday's statement, Trump avoided taking any specific position on how far abortion restrictions should go except for endorsing the most minimal of exceptions in cases of rape and incest as well as to save the life of the mother. Mixed in his word salad was language that even sounded pro-choice: "Do what's right for your family, do what's right for yourself."

But mainly, Trump stressed the issue has become a matter for the states: "My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or by legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land."

This is less of a "view" of Trump's than a sterile observation by Trump of what he has wrought.

Trump desperately wants to have the abortion issue both ways. He wants the hardline abortion opponents to give him credit for overturning Roe, and he wants to convince pro-choice swing voters that he's not a hardline abortion opponent.

Complicating this two-step is that some of the swing states—where he will have to campaign—already have immoderate abortion bans.

Florida and Georgia have six-week bans. North Carolina has a 12-week ban. Just today, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that a total abortion ban (save for protecting the life of the mother), enacted in 1864 before statehood, is once again the law of the state.

Moreover, Trump gave away the game when, in his statement, he said, "You must follow your heart on this issue, but remember, you must also win elections." The wink-and-nod undercuts the attempt to triangulate and occupy the middle ground, because he is implying that this is all just posturing to win this year, not a principled position on which he will govern.

Also yesterday, the Biden campaign released an emotionally gutting ad featuring a Texas woman who was having a miscarriage at 18 weeks and needed an abortion to prevent infection.

Under Texas's abortion ban, she could not get one. The woman got sepsis, almost died, and now may not be able to get pregnant again. Over the woman's sobs, the screen reads, "Donald Trump did this."

It's hard for a president to distance himself from his biggest accomplishment.

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Bill Scher, Washington Monthly politics editor