Donald Trump on Thursday addressed wife Melania Trump’s apparent pro-choice stance on abortion by claiming that he’d told her, “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
The comment drew ire on social media, however, as critics suggested the former president and current GOP nominee is trying to tell other women exactly what to do with their own bodies via his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, which has led to the banning of or restriction to abortion in multiple states.
“Oh, so Melanie gets to choose but not millions of other women. Got it,” journalist Jemele Hill wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Many other commenters said the same thing. See their comments below.
Melania Trump wrote in her upcoming memoir, “Melania,” that it is “imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government.”
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body,” which is a belief she’s held “throughout my entire adult life,” she said.
Commentators speculated as to whether Melania Trump’s comments were a genuine break from the GOP’s increasingly extremist position on abortion rights or whether it was some kind of political ploy to gain moderate swing voters for her husband’s campaign. The former president’s own stance on abortion has, after all, changed many, many times over the years. He is now suggesting that individual states control the issue.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin asked Donald Trump on Thursday, “What’s your reaction to Melania’s memoir about championing abortion rights and reproductive freedom?”
The former president answered, “We spoke about it, and I said, ‘You have to write what you believe. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe.’”
“She’s very beloved. People love our former first lady, I can tell you that,” he continued. “But I said, ‘You have to stick with your heart.’ I’ve said that to everybody, ‘You have to go with your heart.’ There are some people that are very, very far right on the issue, meaning without exceptions, and then there are other people who view it a little bit differently than that.”
Watch the exchange above.