Really Dumb Even For Trump

Nicole Lafond

May 22, 2024 at 7:05 AM·2 min read

After he admitted during a Pittsburgh television interview earlier today that he is “looking at” restrictions on contraceptives and will soon unveil “something that you’ll find interesting,” Donald Trump reversed course and made an all-caps post on Truth Social walking it back entirely.

“We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting,” Trump had told KDKA, the Pittsburgh TV station, earlier on Tuesday, when asked specifically by the TV station’s political analyst Jon Delano whether he supported placing restrictions on a person’s right to contraception. “I think it’s a smart decision. But we’ll be releasing it very soon.”

Delano then pressed Trump on whether he would “support states if they wanted to ban certain forms of birth control, including the morning-after pill,” in the Washington Post’s words, which reviewed the full footage from the interview. The Biden campaign also shared clips of the interview on social media, jabbing Trump for the remarks, which seemingly alluded to a policy that would piggyback on the rights rollbacks already attained by his Supreme Court. The supposed proposal was on an issue that hasn’t been surfaced in any serious way in this campaign cycle as most know how electorally bad it would be to come out against birth control in any way. A 2023 Gallup poll found that 88 percent of Americans view the use of contraceptives as morally sound.

“Things really do have a lot to do with the states, and some states are going to have different policy than others,” Trump said when pressed further.

Before he posted his statement fully walking back the remarks, his campaign told the Associated Press that the former president and 2024 candidate misspoke and meant to tease out a coming announcement on his position on medication abortion, not contraception. It’s the only explanation that makes sense. Coming out against birth control after announcing you don’t support a federal ban on abortion would seemingly fly in the face of the whole “leave it to the states” hill Trump’s been trying to die on.

“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” Trump posted on Truth Social later on Tuesday.