Melania Trump made an extraordinary declaration in an eagerly awaited memoir to be published a month from election day: she is a passionate supporter of a woman’s right to control her own body – including the right to abortion.
“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,” the Republican nominee’s wife writes, amid a campaign in which Donald Trump’s threats to women’s reproductive rights have played a central role.
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.
“Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
Maybe they say to someone more knowledgeable, “well I would vote for trump but he doesn’t support abortion rights”, and now a devout trump supporter can respond “well that’s not really true, his wife is a strong supporter of abortion rights, I’m sure trump is too, it’s just that he has to keep the rest of the party happy. You’ll see once he’s president”
That’s quite the “maybe” for something that also makes Trump look like even his wife isn’t on his side to anyone who is not a low-information voter and possibly plenty who are and hear about it the same way.
So if that’s the sort of stupid tactic they’re going for, sounds like they’re headed for failure. Good.
On the other hand, Occam’s Razor would suggest she just isn’t on the same page with her husband who she hates.