Trump, Once ‘Most Pro-Life President,’ Riles Anti-Abortion Activists With New Stance

Prominent evangelical leaders close to Trump have not expressed disappointment with his criticism of the Florida abortion legislation, however. On Thursday, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, longtime Trump faith adviser, said he had spoken to the former president about the topic, and framed his comments on “Meet the Press” as a matter of tactics more than conscience. Trump, Jeffress insisted, remains “very pro-life” but is “pointing out a political reality” — namely, the unpopularity of abortion bans among many voters and the challenge of passing a federal ban, as several Republican lawmakers and GOP presidential candidates have proposed.

“If there’s going to be a national ban on abortion,” Jeffress said, “there’s going to be some sort of compromise or consensus for legislation to be enacted.”

Asked how that applies to Trump’s criticism of Florida’s abortion ban as a “terrible thing,” Jeffress argued the remarks should be viewed through the “prism of how we’re going to get a consensus.”

If Trump’s opponents hope to use his shifting position on abortion against him with conservative religious voters, they have their work cut out for them. A Deseret News poll conducted a week before Trump’s comments about Florida found that 53% of Republicans view Trump as a “person of faith.” That’s slightly more than his former vice president, Mike Pence (52%), and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (47%), and significantly more than Sen. Tim Scott (31%), former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (31%) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (30%).

This article originally appeared here.