Are Trump’s receipts coming due?

B. Jay Cooper
3 min readApr 14, 2024

Thoughts on the eve of the first criminal trial of a former United States President:

Remember the day Donald J. Trump met with then-President Barack Obama after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016? Go watch the video again. The look on his face was “OMG! I won? Now what?”

You can almost see the same look on Mr. Transactional Man now on the issue of abortion. The Architect of the Overturn of Roe v. Wade now is backpedaling faster than anytime in his entire backpedaling life.

For years, GOP presidential candidates have called for the overturning of Roe, knowing it wasn’t likely gonna happen.

Until it did.

That’s what nominating three anti-abortion justices will do. And that’s what Donald J. Trump did. By the time of the election this year, Trump will be pro-choice, again. But this is one issue where you just don’t get away with bouncing from one side to the other or spinning.

In pre-historic days, when I was involved in Republican politics, the guidance we gave to candidates on the issue of abortion was: “Decide your position. Announce it. Stick with it. And stop talking about it.”

Was good advice because abortion is an issue of conscience, whichever side you’re on. To some it is a religious conviction. To others a health care/freedom of choice conviction. But you can’t mealy mouth your way around it.

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B. Jay Cooper
B. Jay Cooper

Written by B. Jay Cooper

Former deputy White House press secretary (Reagan and Bush 41) and former head of communications at Republican Natl Committee. My blog: bjaycooper.com.

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