Trump Is Using the Veepstakes to Further Fake His 'Moderate' Abortion Position

With the Republican National Convention beginning Monday, Trump is expected to announce his pick for running-mate any moment. The shortlist (likely whittled down after South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s irredeemable dog-murder gaffe!) reportedly includes Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who Trump spent the better part of 2016 writing off as “Little Marco”; J.D. Vance (R-OH), who thinks women in abusive marriages shouldn’t be permitted to get divorced; and the slightly lesser-known North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R). There are, perhaps, some pros to a lower-profile veep like Burgum—Trump’s never referred to him as “Little Doug,” and, unlike Vance, he doesn’t have a well-known history of previously criticizing Trump or generally being a weirdo. But this week, speaking with surprising candor on Fox News Radio, Trump said the total abortion ban Burgum signed into law in North Dakota is “a little bit of an issue, it’s a really strong ban,” signaling the former president’s continued posturing to mislead the public and appear as moderate on abortion. North Dakota’s ban took effect in April 2023, and offers an exception for rape only within the first six weeks, before most people know they’re pregnant. Abortion is popular. Abortion bans are not. For months now, Trump has attempted to simultaneously accept credit for taking the kill shot at Roe, while also distancing himself from abortion bans and the highly visible horror stories they’ve wrought. This week’s Republican Party platform included scant references to abortion and removed the 2016 platform’s outright call for a ban, which prompted a slew of coverage falsely claiming the party has “softened” on the issue. The new platform still calls for fetal personhood, making Trump’s attempts to distance himself from his own anti-abortion extremism for electoral reasons clear. Yet, Burgum’s “really strong” abortion ban is perfectly in line with Trump’s call for abortion to be “left up to the states.” It is, after all, a state abortion ban, and Trump in June said it’s “beautiful” when states make these decisions. He might fear the optics of a vice president who’s the reason doctors in North Dakota can be jailed for doing their job—but this is quite literally what leaving abortion up to the states looks like: abortion bans, forced birth, a health care system inextricable from state policing and the criminal legal system.  Trump, himself, suggested as recently as May that he would restrict access to birth control (which he already did in his first term). He’s expressed support for states surveilling and criminalizing abortion patients. And while he fought to hide his party’s real position on abortion from the platform, it speaks for itself that Trump assembled a platform committee that consists almost entirely of members with ties to the Heritage Foundation’s extremist Project 2025 agenda. Project 2025 maps a path for a Republican president to bypass Congress and ban abortion, among other terrifying policy goals. “You know, I think Doug [Burgum] is great,” Trump concluded on Fox News Radio. “But it [the North Dakota abortion ban] is a strong—he’s taken a very strong stance, or the state has, I don’t know if it’s Doug, but the state has. So, it’s an issue.”  This same week, Trump openly dangled the running-mate position over Rubio’s head at a Florida rally. He also denied to Fox News’ Sean Hannity that Vance’s facial hair would be a deciding factor. And he suggested that Biden's decision to stay in the race might play a role in his choice. After all, if Vice President Kamala Harris winds up leading the ticket, her commanding focus on reproductive rights might, for instance, make a state governor who’s signed an abortion ban an especially vulnerable running-mate for…