LACROSSE, Wis. – Former President Donald Trump continued to soften his hard-right position on reproductive issues, this time in a campaign visit in LaCrosse. Trump said that he could support government coverage of the expense of in-vitro fertilization. It was a a break from categorical opposition to IVF by Republicans in several state legislatures and in Congress. As recently as June, nearly every Senate Republican blocked a bill that would have expanded IVF access through insurance. In LaCrosse, Trump said:
“I’ve been looking at it and what we’re going to do is for people who have been using IVF which is fertilization, we are going to, the government is going to pay for it or we are going to mandate your insurance company to pay for it. It’s going to be great. We’re going to do that.”
The change in Trump’s position was deliberate and rehearsed – not off the cuff. Former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, an avid Trump supporter who played host on the LaCrosse stage, began with a pre-arranged account of her own experience with fertility treatments. Trump welcomed the question and proceeded to enunciate a carefully prepared position. Analysts varied how to characterize it: Nuanced? A shift? A reversal?
Political necessity
Democrats have hammered Trump on his hard line against abortion and, more broadly, women’s reproductive rights through all his 2024 campaign to retake the White House. Trump increasingly has found himself losing support from women voters. He tried without success to sidestep critics by washing his hands of the issue by declaring abortion wasn’t federal issue and deferring legislation to the states. It didn’t work, and the issue continued to haunt his candidacy. This all contrasts with Trump’s statement in a 2016 interview ya women should be punished for abortions. Compounding his problem with women voters has been his three appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. He has. Lost no opportunity to take credit for his appointees overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized. abortion.
On other issues
Trump said:
> Border security needs tougher leadership but he was vague: “We have to bring back that level of respect and we’re going to do it and we’re not letting the wrong people into our country.”
> His good relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would have stopped the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He didn’t explain how beyond “returning the country to how it was” under his leadership.
> He would open the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve to oil drilling which he described as panacean to lower fuel costs, lower food costs, and lower interest rates. He said nothing about the mechanics of how this would come to be.
Trump took questions from only three people at the townhall A La Crosse college, identified only as Pete B., said he struggles with expenses as he lives on his own, and dreams of eventually becoming a homeowner – something he said did not seem possible at the moment. Trump responded with sweeping assertions that sidestepped specifics:
“They say you vote with your stomach – I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but it’s a little bit true. Groceries and food have gone up in levels that nobody’s ever seen before. We’re going to become the energy capital of the world. We’re going to pay down our debt and we’re going to reduce your taxes. And your groceries are going to come tumbling down, and your interest rates are going to be tumbling down, and then you’re going to go out and buy your beautiful house.”
At LaCrosse Center. To keep Trump “on message,” which as been a problem, his campaign strategists tried a new format in LaCrosse with a friendly moderator — Tulsi Gabbard, a former member of Congress from Hawaii. Gabbard has been an avid Trump supporter who’s rumored for a Cabinet post if he’s elected.
How the event went
The LaCrosse Center was configured to seat 7,000 and was full. An estimated 500 people milled outside.
Trump was late because his previous campaign stop in Potterville, Michigan, ran over.
Among greeters at the LaCrosse airport: WI-3 Congress member Derrick Van Orden and former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Both are Republicans.
The LaCrosse cebter session, billed a as a town-hall meeting lasted 34 minutes –unusually brief for Tump.
At the request of Trump’s security detail, the cruise boat Viking Mississippi, in town for the day with 500 passengers and crew, departed from its dock near the LaCrosse Center earlier than its 5 p.m schedule.
Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, spoke at the Green Bay airport earlier in the day. It was he thought he might catch up Trump to LaCrosse. He didn’t.
The visit was Trump’s first to western Wisconsin this campaign cycle, butut he has camoaigned jn Racine, Waukesha and Green Bay. He was also in Milwaukee for the Republican national convention.
Vulgarity chants in pre-quel
Athough the event was described by Trump’s advance team as a “townhall meeting,” the staging didn’t encourage meaningful dialogue, let alone tough questions. The event was only 34 mutes. There was no sit-down news media access to Trump. The pre-screened crowd was rambunctiously adoring, looking to rally, not query. This was to the dismay of a passenger visiting LaCrosse for day from a river cruise boat. “One thing I heard when I was walking down was people chanting, ‘Say no to the ho,’’ It was a vulgar line from Trump’s persistent demeaning of Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival for the presidency. The riverboat passenger, Lydia Gregory, called the chants disrespectful to women. To a LaCrosse Tribune reporter, Gregory said: “The fish rots from the head down, right? And that’s what happened. When somebody who is in power believes you can say that about women and their opponents — and I understand being against your opponent, that’s absolutely fine — but the absolute misogyny and disrespect that’s going on is just really tough to hear, but that comes from their leader.” About such Trump insults, Harris has chosen not to respond.