AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Former President Donald Trump hinted on Thursday that he would support a Florida ballot initiative seeking to amend the state’s constitution to grant the right to an abortion up until 24 weeks.
The measure requires a 60% majority to pass.
Asked by a Daily Mail reporter about the initiative, Trump said he disagrees with the state’s current six-week abortion ban.
“I want more than six weeks,” he said. “I think six weeks is a mistake. And I’ll be expressing that soon, but I want more than six weeks.”
When asked if he would vote for the proposed amendment, Trump said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
Later in the day, a Trump campaign adviser told Semafor that the former president has yet to decide how he will vote.
“He has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” the adviser told Semafor.
Trump appointed three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. While he has repeatedly boasted of this accomplishment, Republicans have faced an increasingly galvanized Democratic Party. Republicans drastically underperformed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections and some Republicans – including Trump pal Sean Hannity – have warned other members of their party not to enact absolutist restrictions on abortion.
“That’s where the country is,” Hannity said of a possible 15-week abortion ban in April. “And if Republican politicians don’t understand that, then… they’re gonna get their asses kicked and they’re gonna lose.”
Trump himself has sent mixed signals on the issue. In June, he told a group seeking a total abortion ban, “I’ll be with you, side by side.”
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