Trump’s favorite policy position: Check back later
Former President Donald Trump has a history of kicking the can down the road when he has been pressed to clarify his stances on significant policy issues — and this week, the habit made news his campaign didn't want.
Trump seemed to signal an openness to restrictions on birth control in an interview with KDKA-TV of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, saying "we're looking at that" and promising a policy announcement in the near future. Trump had to clean up the comments later on his social media feed.
Trump also late last month promised a policy position in "the next week or two” about the use of the abortion pill mifepristone. It hasn't come yet.
Trump’s penchant for evading specific policy stances stretches beyond reproductive health policies, however. It has been a common thread running through his campaigns and presidency, dating to his first run for the White House more than eight years ago.
Presidential candidates often obfuscate when they’re hit with difficult, politically risky or complicated matters on the trail. But Trump’s punting tactic is unusual. Here are some examples of those answers.
When asked whether he supports restrictions on access to contraceptives
May 21, 2024: “I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly.”
Trump was asked whether he would support restrictions when it comes to contraceptives in the KDKA interview Tuesday, one in a string of local media interviews he has done recently.
“We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly, and I think it’s something you’ll find interesting,” he said. “I think it’s a smart decision. We’ll be releasing it very soon.”
Asked whether that means he might want to support some restrictions, Trump said, “You know, also, things really do have a lot to do with the states, and some states are going to have different policy than others.”
Trump changed his tone the same day on his Truth Social account, writing in all-capital letters that he had “never, and will never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control,” adding that he does “not support a ban on birth control.”
When asked for an update on his promised announcement about the abortion pill
April 27, 2024: “No, I haven’t. I’ll be doing it over the next week or two.”
Speaking with Time magazine on April 12, Trump deflected a question about whether women should be able to get mifepristone, a type of abortion medication.
"I have an opinion on that, but I’m not going to explain. I’m not gonna say it yet," Trump said, instead promising a statement "over the next 14 days."
In a follow-up phone interview with Time more than two weeks later, the interviewer noted that Trump hadn’t yet made his promised announcement and pressed him again.
Trump said: “No, I haven’t. I’ll be doing it over the next week or two. But I don’t think it will be shocking, frankly. But I’ll be doing it over the next week or two.”
Trump and his campaign still haven’t not made a statement about mifepristone access, which is the subject of a Supreme Court case.
"The Supreme Court will make a decision on the use of mifepristone very soon," Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "President Trump has consistently stated his view that abortion regulation is now up to the will of the people in each state."
Trump on replacing Obamacare
Nov. 29, 2023: “America will have one of the best Healthcare Plans anywhere in the world.”
July 19, 2020: Trump promises “signing a health care plan within two weeks” to replace Obamacare.
“I don’t want to terminate Obamacare, I want to REPLACE IT with MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE. Obamacare Sucks!!!” Trump said in a pair of late-night posts on Truth Social in November.
It's part of a recurring theme for Trump, who made similar promises in 2016. A year later, a Republican-led bill to undo a substantial part of the law that would have rescinded coverage for about 23 million people never made it out of Congress. Republicans collectively abandoned plans to repeal Obamacare in the years since then.
Still, Trump vowed to sign a health care plan in an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News in 2020.
This “new health care plan” was never proposed, and Trump has yet to propose a replacement plan for Obamacare.
Other times Trump’s White House promised something to come (usually in about two weeks)
Trump's policy promises during his presidency sometimes came true, but even when they did, they often blew past his self-proclaimed deadlines.
February 2017: Trump promised a tax announcement in two to three weeks — “And we’re going to be announcing something, I would say, over the next two or three weeks that will be phenomenal, in terms of tax,” Trump said.
Republicans did ultimately craft and pass a new tax law in 2017, but it took much of the year, and it ultimately passed in December.
April 2017: Trump said a new infrastructure plan would be filed in the next two to three weeks in an interview with CBS News — “We’ve got the plan largely completed, and we’ll be filing over the next two or three weeks — maybe sooner.”
Trump's recurring pledges to introduce infrastructure plans became a line of attack against him in the 2020 campaign.
April 2017: At a Pennsylvania rally speaking about the Paris climate agreement — “And I’ll be making a big decision on the Paris accord over the next two weeks.”
Trump did withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement later that year, on June 1.
