Trump Team Desperately Tries to Rewind His Shocking Abortion Comment

Donald Trump and his campaign are suddenly at odds on the issue of abortion.

Speaking with NBC News, the Republican presidential nominee shared that he intended to vote in favor of abortion rights when it comes up on the ballot in Florida, believing that a “six-week [ban] is too short.”

“I’m going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” Trump told NBC on Thursday.

He also elaborated that he believed there should be exceptions in abortion restrictions in instances of rape or incest, and that medical intervention should be allowed to maintain the life of the person pregnant.

But that wasn’t what his campaign had expected him to say. In a statement to NPR, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt left the political decision ajar, insisting that “President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”

Florida’s abortion ban, which went into effect in May, is one of the most extreme in the nation. The new law prohibits abortion well before a lot of people even realize they’re pregnant, and just one week before drug store pregnancy tests can detect pregnancy hormones in their earliest, and least reliable, window. The restriction has forced patients in need of the procedure to seek treatment in North Carolina, where abortion is banned after 12 weeks, or even further.

Prior to the ban, Florida allowed abortion up to 15 weeks, making it a haven for people seeking the medical procedure in the South. The six-week ban passed alongside similarly restrictive bans in neighboring states, meaning that abortion access throughout the entire region has been crippled.

Backlash to Florida’s new law has been extreme, with more than a million Floridians signing a petition to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The effort has placed abortion rights on the ballot in November. That initiative, known as Amendment Four, would protect abortion until “fetal viability” at approximately 24 weeks. Still, a possible win in the second half of the year will come “on the backs” of people who have had to suffer in the interim, giving birth “when they didn’t want to,” executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund Megan Jeyifo told NPR shortly after the ban was enacted.

Trump has worked to soften his anti-choice position in recent weeks and appeal to women’s rights activists in an effort to draw more voters to his campaign—but his renewed rhetoric won’t change the practical effects of his presidency, not least of all instilling a hyper-conservative Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, which Trump has proudly taken credit for. In 2023, the former president also claimed that he should be celebrated for every single state abortion ban.

“I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” Trump posted on Truth Social last year, “and for the first time put the Pro Life movement in a strong negotiating position.… Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to.”

Donald Trump seemed well and truly out of it during a chaotic, self-aggrandizing speech in Potterville, Michigan, on Thursday. 

Trump spoke at a private messaging event at Alro Steel, where he was meant to speak about the economy—but flanked onstage by a few dozen workers dressed in hard hats and neon vests, he barely mentioned the economy at all. 

Having walked onstage more than half an hour late, Trump appeared shaken, and incoherently skipped through different talking points, repeatedly diverting to heap compliments on himself. 

“We will bring back the American Dream, bigger, better, stronger, and just better, bigger, better, we love the American Dream,” Trump said in his opening remarks, appearing to immediately lose track of what he was saying. “You don’t hear about the American Dream. When was the last time you heard about the American Dream?”

Trump immediately began attacking his opponent, Kamala Harris. “The only good thing that she’s uh—flip-flopping,” Trump said, stammering. “She’s the greatest flip-flopper—things that she’s never even thought of. She probably goes back to her room and gets sick to her stomach when she says what she has to say.”

Trump also diverted to criticize his former opponent President Joe Biden for “laying on a beach, sleeping all day long” as he vacations in Rhode Island this week. “No seriously, who the hell wants to sleep—and who wants to sleep in public?” Trump said incredulously. “He’s sleeping!”

The weak attack is especially weird coming from Trump, who reportedly fell asleep multiple times during his hush-money trial in New York. 

During his rambling speech, Trump debuted a new blatantly false claim about Harris.

“Did you know that she was the leader of Defund the Police?” Trump asked, at one point.

“I said, ‘Why do I have to make a speech?’ All I have to do is say that ‘She was the leader of the Defund the Police movement,’ and then I say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much,’ and then leave, because when you hear that,” Trump said laughing. 

Trump then went from criticizing Harris to complimenting himself. “With me, I make a speech, I speak for two hours, everybody loves it,” Trump said. “I got thousands of people, by the way, outside trying to get in.”

“They never said Trump’s a great speaker, I don’t even want that, but I must be a great speaker right? We got thousands of people!” Trump said. 

The event was not open to the public, but a crowd of more than 100 people gathered outside. Trump later claimed that there were people “as far as the eye could see” gathered outside of the event.

“But no, I don’t care about that,” Trump said, suddenly serious. “I care about uh, winning for our country. I care about making America great again.”

Brian Pannebecker, swagged out in an Auto Workers for Trump T-shirt and visor, was called on stage at one point to criticize electric vehicle mandates. Pannebecker reportedly once called former President Barack Obama “a race hustler,” and was possibly behind a review praising KKK Grand Wizard David Duke’s memoir. Pannebecker has previously been invited on stage to speak at rallies in Waterford Township, Michigan, in February, and again in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in July.

Back behind the mic, Trump made lengthy remarks about trucks, complained about being the most persecuted American president in history, and whined about Harris’s interview with Dana Bash scheduled to air Thursday evening. Finally, he got to his big announcement—which he had more or less spoiled in a pre-speech interview with NBC. 

Trump announced that under his administration, the government would pay for IVF treatments—or mandate insurance companies to pay, but he didn’t seem clear on which. He also did not acknowledge that his administration’s policies and the Supreme Court justices he appointed are the reason IVF is currently under attack from his own party.

“Because we want more babies, to put it nicely,” Trump said.  

“And for this same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes. So that parents that have a beautiful baby … will be able … so, we’re pro-family, nobody’s ever said that before,” Trump said, sounding confused.

“I’ve been in favor of IVF right from the beginning,” Trump claimed, after months of waffling on his position ever since fertility treatments became a political liability for Republicans earlier this year. 

“They have ads like I’m against it, it’s just the opposite. By comparison, they’re against it. But I’m totally in favor of it,” Trump said. 

Not dwelling on his major announcement for long, Trump quickly changed subjects to inflation and the so-called “migrant invasion.” Although he mentioned he would soon be concluding, he carried on complaining about several different issues including an altercation Monday, in which Trump’s staffers reportedly shoved an employee at Arlington National Cemetery who was trying to prevent them from illegally filming after a memorial for 13 service members killed during the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

Trump’s response was nothing short of extreme. 

“Joe Biden killed their children, by incompetence. Shoulda never happened. Kamala killed their children. Just as though they had a gun in their hand, by gross incompetence,” Trump said, blaming his opponents for their deaths. 

J.D. Vance is begging his old friend Peter Thiel to help Donald Trump win the 2024 election.

The co-founder of PayPal and Palantir has helped swing elections in the past, but previously stated that he would sit this one out. However, Vance is trying to capitalize on their long-standing relationship to get Thiel “off the sidelines” and funding the Trump-Vance campaign, according to the Financial Times.

“I’m going to keep on talking to Peter and persuading him that—you know he’s obviously been exhausted by politics a little bit—but he’s going to be really exhausted by politics if we lose and if Kamala Harris is president,” Vance told the FT in an interview published Thursday.

“He is fundamentally a conservative guy, and I think that he needs to get off the sidelines and support the ticket.”

Vance was once Thiel’s pupil in Silicon Valley, and when Vance started his own fund, he was financially supported by the PayPal founder, whom he considered a mentor. When Vance ran for Senate in 2022, Thiel shelled out a record-breaking $15 million to secure his victory. Trump and Vance reportedly initially met through a meeting put together by Thiel himself.

The billionaire venture capitalist and Trump have fallen out in recent years, and Thiel did not financially support Trump in 2020. Last year, Thiel said he wouldn’t give “any money to Republican politicians in 2024,” but left the door open, saying “there’s always a chance I might change my mind.” Many have seen Trump’s pick of Vance as a nod toward Silicon Valley right-wingers like Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk.

In July, after Trump announced his V.P. pick, Thiel hinted that he could be swayed. “I always try to resist getting swept up in excitement,” he told The New York Times. “But in spite of many misgivings I had earlier this year, it makes me more hopeful that a second Trump term will be better than the first.”

Donald Trump has begun pestering CNN’s Dana Bash to ask hard-hitting questions of Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz during their interview, which airs Thursday night at 9:00 p.m. E.T.

The interview was filmed around 1:45 p.m. according to The New York Times, so Trump started his day early by pushing for Bash to seize the opportunity to speak to Harris and Walz.

“Dana Bash of CNN has a chance at greatness today. If she gave a fair but tough interview of Comrade Kamala Harris, she will expose her as being totally inept and ill suited for the job of President, much as I exposed Crooked Joe Biden during our now famous Debate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “How cool would that be for Dana and CNN???”

“Also, the interview should not have Tampon Tim present to help with the inevitable Kamala stumbles, and under no circumstances should the transcript be allowed to be changed in any way, shape, or form,” Trump wrote, echoing right-wing critics who say Harris should appear alone and will use Walz as a crutch in their first major interview since receiving the Democratic Party’s nomination.

In Trump’s first interview after being nominated at the Republican National Convention in July, Trump and J.D. Vance appeared together in an interview with Fox’s Jesse Waters, who tends to go for sexist comments over hard-hitting questions. During the interview, Trump shyly deferred to Vance when asked whether he thought Joe Biden’s ouster was a “coup.”

“Dana and Jake were fair, but firm, in my CNN Debate with Crooked Joe. This is a chance for Dana Bash to reach REAL stardom, while at the same time doing a great service to our now failing Country,” Trump wrote. “Good luck, Dana, do the right thing!!!”

Bash moderated Trump’s debate against Biden in June. Although he had criticized Bash before the debate, afterward Trump had nothing but good things to say.

Trump’s pleas to Bash come after he went on a rageful social media rant, calling for his enemies to be jailed and even killed.

Donald Trump’s campaign team apparently does not want his microphone on when it isn’t his turn to speak in the next presidential debate.

Brian Fallon, a senior adviser to the Kamala Harris campaign, posted on X Thursday afternoon that Trump’s staff asked ABC News, which will be hosting the first presidential debate on September 10, to ignore Trump’s comments and keep the microphones off when it’s not his turn to speak. If ABC doesn’t enforce muted mics as a debate rule, the Trump team will reportedly pull out of the debate, Fallon said.

“We find the Trump’s team’s stance to be weak, and remain in discussions with ABC on the final rules,” Fallon’s post said.

Trump said earlier this week that he was fine with debate microphones being on, but added that the rules he agreed to were the same as his first debate in June against President Biden, where the mics were muted. Earlier reporting also noted that Trump’s team was the one to push for muted mics again this time around. If true, Trump’s staff might be trying to save the Republican presidential nominee and convicted felon from himself.

Unlike his debate with Biden, Trump will be verbally sparring with a former prosecutor almost 20 years younger than him. At the last debate, Trump appeared sharper and more alert than Biden, raising concerns about the president’s ability to win reelection and ultimately resulting in his withdrawal from the race. Biden’s campaign pushed for muted microphones at the time, probably hoping to give Biden an advantage.

Harris’s campaign doesn’t see such a need, and on Wednesday her co–campaign manager Mitch Landrieu mocked Trump, saying that his team “wants to shut him up.” Whether microphones are on or off, the September 10 debate promises to be lively and much different from the one in June, with Trump desperate for a victory against Harris as his campaign struggles to land any attacks against her or her running mate Tim Walz. But, the more he talks, the weirder he may come across on national television.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump, but he’s still going to be on the ballot in North Carolina, hurting Trump’s prospects in the state.

The state’s board of elections voted 3–2 on Thursday to keep Kennedy on the ballot, saying that it would be too difficult to remove his name, as many ballots have already been printed. The board’s executive director, Karen Brinson, said North Carolina has already printed close to 1.73 million ballots in over 60 counties, with special ballots being prepared for overseas military members and the disabled.

Kennedy had asked the state to remove him from the ballot, but the board’s Democratic majority thought otherwise, overruling the two Republican board members. Last week, Kennedy said he was seeking to withdraw his name from battleground state ballots while staying on in other states, hoping to divert votes away from Harris and boost Trump.

North Carolina is only the latest battleground state that won’t drop Kennedy from their ballots. Election officials in Michigan and Wisconsin announced Tuesday that their states won’t remove him. According to polling averages from The Hill, Kennedy’s presence on both Wisconsin and Michigan’s ballots gives a slight boost to Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

The quixotic ex-candidate is already part of Trump’s presidential transition team, helping to craft policy and select staff members should the Republican presidential nominee win in November. The move has drawn the ire of at least one major GOP donor in Eric Levine, who described Kennedy as “an anti-vax kook who sees conspiracies behind every tree and under every bed.”

Trump supporters, including Kennedy, are not likely to welcome the news that he could still pull votes away from Trump. They also might not think highly of whatever deal Kennedy may have struck with Trump in exchange for his endorsement. Much like they are stuck with Trump and J.D. Vance, the GOP is now stuck with Kennedy to their possible peril.

Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita has decided to take the team on a death spiral against America’s military, calling the office of the Army secretary a bunch of “hacks.”

“Reposting this hoping to trigger the hacks at @SecArmy,” LaCivita wrote Thursday afternoon, resharing a campaign video of Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this week.

Trump’s decision Tuesday to film at the military graveyard—and in Section 60, where recent military casualties are buried—violated federal law, which prohibits politically related activities in the cemetery such as taking photos and videos in support of a political campaign. The criminal behavior reportedly sparked a verbal and physical fight between Trump’s surrogates and an Arlington National Cemetery official who attempted to rein in the campaign’s videotaping.

In a rare statement, the Army sided with the cemetery official on Thursday morning, writing that the military organization believed the official had been “abruptly pushed aside” and “unfairly attacked” by Trump staffers.

“Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside,” an Army spokesperson said.

“This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the ANC employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked,” they continued. “ANC is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”

The Trump campaign claimed that they had been given permission to videotape by the families of fallen service members, but unfortunately for Trump, that doesn’t change federal law.

LaCivita’s words are unlikely to help Trump’s efforts to attract more veterans to his side. The Republican presidential nominee’s anti-military rhetoric has been a point of contention with current and former service members in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the reputed Vietnam-era draft dodger came under fire for arguing that the Presidential Medal of Freedom he awarded to one of his billionaire donors was “much better” than the nation’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor. That comment struck a nerve with veterans, who connected Trump’s disrespectful rhetoric to a 2020 Atlantic report that caught the former president repeatedly referring to fallen soldiers as “suckers and losers.”

Elon Musk’s “free speech” project is once again under fire—this time for flagging an article critical of Donald Trump.

On Thursday, X users and NPR editors noticed that a link to an NPR story about Trump’s Arlington National Cemetery mishap was being marked as spam on the platform.

When users clicked on the article link, they received an alert reading: “Warning: this link may be unsafe,” followed by the URL to the webpage. This type of warning is typically displayed when the URL leads the user to spam or another kind of malicious link, not a factual news report.

The issue now appears to be resolved, but there doesn’t seem to be any official explanation from X for the warning.

Steve Inskeep, host of Morning Edition and Up First on NPR, flagged the issue, writing: “As of 12:45 p.m. ET, X has blocked this NPR story. Other NPR stories are not blocked, so I’m assuming a good faith mistake.” 

That assumption may be a bit too generous. Recently, X has come under fire for limiting access to several political accounts such as KamalaHQ, the official rapid response page for Harris’s campaign, the Uncommitted movement, and the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

This also is not the first feud between Elon Musk and NPR. In 2023, Musk labeled the new organization “state-affiliated media,” a label usually reserved for true propaganda outlets in countries like Russia and China. In response, the outlet formally left the platform. 

Meanwhile, Musk continues to back Trump every way he can, including using X to get him greater attention. Perhaps that support may include more overt censorship going forward.

J.D. Vance was greeted by loud boos during an address to the International Association of Fire Fighters in Boston on Thursday—and that was only the beginning of an incredibly rough speech for Donald Trump’s running mate.

“Thank you guys—” Vance said as he grabbed the mic to speak, only to be interrupted by loud booing from the audience.

“Semper fi, guys,” Vance said, seeming to signpost his background as a Marine to get the hecklers to stop. “Sounds like we’ve got some fans and some haters, that’s OK,” he joked.

“Listen to what I have to say here, and I’ll make my pitch,” he said.

Vance asked his audience, which had voted to endorse Joe Biden in 2019, to “ignore the campaign rhetoric and look at the record,” before predictably diving into campaign rhetoric blaming undocumented immigrants for unsupported claims about increased crime and drug use.

Vance touted projections of how much undocumented immigrants were costing different cities around the country, referring to New York, Chicago, Denver, and Washington, D.C., but didn’t conjure a single number about Boston, where the speech was actually taking place.

“We shouldn’t be forced to spend billions of dollars on people who aren’t even supposed to be here. We should be spending that money on schools, police and fire departments, and our citizens, and under President Donald J. Trump’s leadership, we will,” Vance said. The Ohio senator’s imagining of a world where by funding public institutions, you can somehow police the citizenship of those who receive their benefits, was met by a mix of claps and boos.

If Vance thought his earlier plea would be enough to settle the disruptions, he had another think coming.

“Now, President Trump and I are proud to be the most pro-worker Republican ticket in history, and I want to talk about why we’re fighting for working people,” Vance said, once again interrupted by loud booing from actual working people.

As Minnesota Governor Tim Walz pointed out to the IAFF the day before, during a much friendlier reception, Trump had blocked overtime benefits, opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage, and proposed slashing federal fire service budgets. Walz warned that under Project 2025, Trump would continue to weaken unions.

On stage, Vance’s declaration that he was a “populist, and proud of it,” was again met by some claps and boos. Vance’s cold reception didn’t prevent him from attempting jokes, although he brutally fumbled their delivery in the face of an indifferent crowd.

Vance explained that Donald Trump is a “different kind of Republican, and under his leadership, the Republican Party is the party of the American worker,” and asked his audience to take the Republican National Convention as an example.

“It says a lot who each party chose to put up on that stage. At the Republican convention we were featuring everyday American workers—and of course, we had Hulk Hogan. And while it’s tempting, and I’m sure it would make some big headlines, don’t worry any-ev-everybody, I’m not going to try to take off my shirt here—” he said, stumbling slightly, to zero crowd response.

His rough way into a complaint that the Democrats had only invited celebrities fell flat, highlighting his awkward public speaking style and inability to depart from a prepared speech.

As Vance left the stage, he was met once again by deafening jeers mixed into some applause.

Vance’s team is already attempting to spin his dismal reception, lauding his bravery for stepping into hostile territory. Vance’s communications director William Martin posted his own video of the event, showing the “massive round of applause” for Vance as he walked on the stage, but stopped short of showing the booing that would begin once he opened his mouth.

Even Donald Trump’s staffers can’t defend his recent chauvinistic tirades against Vice President Kamala Harris.

In an interview with CNN’s John Berman on Thursday, Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt couldn’t seem to offer a rational explanation for why the former president was reposting QAnon slogans and sharing a screenshot of an exchange on X that featured a photo of Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alongside a comment that read, “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently.”

“You say that Donald Trump was a candidate of stability,” prompted Berman. “Why was Donald Trump over the last 36 hours on his social media reposting slogans from QAnon and reposting misogynistic, sexist content about Vice President Harris?”

“Well, look, I don’t think your viewers at home are concerned about social media posts. I think they are concerned with the news of the day,” Leavitt started before launching an attack on President Joe Biden’s border policies.

“Karoline, Karoline—do you know why he posted that?” Berman asked. “Do you know why he reposted that content?”

“I haven’t been able to talk to President Trump yet this morning because he’s calling in to media interviews, unlike Kamala Harris who has been avoiding the press for more than 40 days,” Leavitt said. “And we’re excited that CNN finally has the opportunity to question Kamala Harris tonight about her disastrous record.

“Again, Americans aren’t concerned with social media posts and silly memes, they are concerned with the problems that are plaguing them and their families right now,” she continued, pointing to three unconnected murders of women by migrants as being more “demeaning” to women than Trump’s rhetoric.

But Berman argued that Americans are capable of deliberating more than one issue at a time.

“When there’s content being reposted that uses QAnon slogans and when there are these sexist, misogynistic posts, it’s interesting to me that you can’t, you’re not—you don’t think they’re bad,” Berman said. “You have no problem with them.”

“I didn’t say that. I said that I don’t believe voters care,” Leavitt said.