One of Donald Trump’s greatest achievements during his presidency was laying the groundwork for Roe v. Wade to be overturned by appointing three Supreme Court justices. But as Governor Ron DeSantis is now pointing out, it seems like Trump is now wavering on what his abortion stance will be.

Donald Trump was the first sitting president to address the March For Life back in 2020, While his pro-life bona fides were cause for some concern during the 2016 campaign, his committment to the cause of life during his presidency convinced a lot of conservatives that he was serious.

But now Trump is running for president again. A year ago, he was definitely not as pleased about the verdict in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, publicly being sanguine while apparently concerned how this would affect Republicans politically.

“God made the decision,” Trump told Fox News after the Supreme Court ruling was handed down.”

“I think, in the end, this is something that will work out for everybody,” he added.”

Privately, however, Trump has said that overturning Roe would be “bad for Republicans,” according to The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Michael C. Bender.”

Trump’s response demonstrates how he has tried to play both sides of the debate after making an explicit campaign promise that he would only name justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade.”

In 2020, Trump told “Fox & Friends” that it was “certainly possible” that then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett would vote to overturn Roe, but he added, we “just don’t know what’s going to happen.” Barrett, the last of Trump’s picks, became the fifth and decisive vote in overturning Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. She was joined by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s other two picks.”

But now that the campaign is underway, Trump is happy to take the credit.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said he “was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” and put the anti-abortion movement in a “strong negotiating position.”

“Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to,” he wrote. “Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”

But at the same time, he has also been coy about the extent of his own support.

Trump, in an interview he gave to digital news startup The Messenger published on Monday (May 15, 2023), said “if you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don’t even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.”

The former president’s comments come after a CNN town hall meeting last week, where Trump took credit for appointing the conservative Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. But when pressed, Trump would not say if he would support a federal abortion law and what type of restrictions he would be willing to sign into law.

Ron DeSantis took exception to that comment at the time.

DeSantis retorted at a bill signing press conference in Broward County that “protecting an unborn child when there’s a detectable heartbeat is something that almost probably 99 percent of pro-lifers support. It’s something that others states like Iowa under Gov. Kim Reynolds have enacted.”

The governor then added that “I think that as a Florida resident, you know, he didn’t give an answer about ‘would you have signed the heartbeat bill that Florida did.’ It had all the exceptions that people talk about. The Legislature put it in. I signed the bill. I was proud to do it. He won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”

And in a new interview that will be airing today, DeSantis is still pushing back on Trump’s comments, and letting the accusation stand that Trump has gone “soft” on abortion.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R ) said in an interview on Thursday that he was “surprised” when his 2024 rival former President Trump criticized the state’s six-week abortion ban as “too harsh” last month.”

“I was really surprised because he’s a Florida resident,” DeSantis told CBN News’ David Brody in an interview slated to air on the 700 Club on Friday.”

“I thought he would compliment the fact that we were able to do the heartbeat bill, which pro-lifers have wanted for a long time,” he continued. “He never complimented, never said anything about it then he was asked about it and he said it was ‘harsh.’”

When asked by Brody on Thursday whether he thought Trump was being “too soft” on abortion, DeSantis said, “I think so.”

“While I appreciate what the former president has done in a variety of realms, he opposes that bill,” he said. “He said it was ‘harsh’ to protect an unborn child when there’s a detectable heartbeat. I think that’s humane to do.”

“I think pro-lifers have been wanting to see good pro-life protections whether it’s Florida or Iowa under Kim Reynolds,” DeSantis added.”

This is definitely going to be an interesting battle during the primary. Trump governed as a pro-life president, but is he going squishy on that now? DeSantis believes so, and in the interview he clearly believes that the culture war is the battle that conservatives must confront and can win, especially because the left has overplayed their hand, as we can see with Bud Light and Target. Former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was widely scorned on the right recently for his dismissal of the culture war as “too polarizing.”

Paul Ryan denounces GOP efforts to protect kids from racially divisive & sexual material, telling CBS he's "not a culture war guy" & those issues are "polarizing." Instead, he's focused on China & the debt.

I grew up idolizing him as many 30something conservatives. So lame. pic.twitter.com/OBmC8ieTDC

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 13, 2023

One of the reasons that Trump was successful as president was his willingness to fight in the culture war. DeSantis has also proved that he is a fighter in that same war. The GOP establishment pays lip service to the fight, but gets squeamish – like Paul Ryan – when pushed. Republican primary voters want a fighter, and it’s going to be up to the candidates to prove by word and deed that they are willing to fight for sanity, especially after the offensive “Pride” displays that we’ve seen at the White House recently.

Trump cannot stand on his credit of appointing SCOTUS justices for the primary. The legal battle for life has moved to the state level, and he will have to be specific about what he thinks about heartbeat bills. If he is not, then DeSantis is going to declare that he is right, and that Trump is waffling on the extent of his pro-life beliefs. You can bet this will come up in a debate, and Donald Trump needs to have a solid answer.

Featured image: composite collage photo of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida (official portrait, cropped, public domain) and President Donald Trump (official White House portrait by Shealah Craighead, cropped, public domain)