What is Melania Trump's game if she suddenly defends abortion rights? | Melania Trump

When news broke Wednesday night that Melania Trump supports abortion rights — and appears to have done so throughout her adult life — the news was greeted with surprise and confusion.

Melania's husband Donald Trump is trying to quickly recalibrate his approach to abortion as he heads toward Election Day. Is Melania trying to help him? Hurt him? Or neither?

In her upcoming memoir, Melania Trump goes into detail about her support for the procedure.

“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to decide what she does with her own body?” she wrote. “A woman’s fundamental right to individual freedom and her own life gives her the power to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”

Shortly after the Guardian broke the news, Trump uploaded a black-and-white video of himself to social media, set to rousing music.

“Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this fundamental right that all women have from birth,” she said. “Individual freedom. What does my body, my choice really mean?”

The news of Melania Trump's support for abortion rights comes at a time when her husband Donald Trump is trying to convince voters that he can be trusted to protect abortion rights.

In the years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion has become Republicans' Achilles heel. It cost Republicans victories in the 2022 midterm elections, while abortion rights supporters have won a number of ballot measures even in such red states as Kentucky, Kansas and Ohio.

Early in his campaign, Trump tried to be all things abortion for everyone, alternately bragging about his role in overturning Roe – by appointing three of the justices who voted in favor of abortion – and complaining that the Hard-line positions on abortion that would cost Republicans elections. But since Kamala Harris, an extraordinarily effective messenger on abortion, became the Democratic nominee for president, he has abandoned that approach in favor of mutilated support for abortion rights.

“WOMEN WILL BE HAPPY, HEALTHY, SAFE AND FREE!” Trump recently posted on Truth Social. “They will no longer think about abortion because it is now where it always needed to be: with the states.”

So Melania Trump's revelation could serve to reassure undecided voters who are unwilling to vote for Harris but support abortion rights – as the majority of Americans do. But Tresa Undem, a pollster who has surveyed people about abortion for more than two decades, said the likelihood that such comments will appeal to moderates or pro-abortion conservatives is “pretty slim.”

Because regardless of her personal beliefs, it seems unlikely that Melania Trump will have any real influence on her tempestuous husband's policies. Her abortion rights beliefs didn't stop Donald Trump from helping to tear down Roe. It also doesn't help that Melania and Donald Trump's relationship, at least in public, is anything but cozy. (He recently stated that he had not read the book, although he had written the foreword.)

“Nothing Republicans say will distract the American people from the reality they see with their own eyes: story after story of rape and incest victims forced to become pregnant, of doctors forced to become patients in miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, and of women literally dying from them. “Trump's abortion bans,” Emilia Rowland, press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, said in a text.

Melania Trump's disagreement with her husband is also not as new as it seems. Betty Ford, wife of Republican President Gerald Ford, was an ardent supporter of abortion rights, said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law who studies the legal history of reproduction. This didn't make much of a difference in Gerald Ford's election campaign.

“I think people understand that Melania and Donald Trump are very different people,” Ziegler said. “I could imagine independent voters and swing voters saying, 'Wow.' It's bad that even Donald Trump's wife doesn't like Donald Trump's position.'”

Melania Trump's message appears to have angered anti-abortion activists, who are among Trump's most reliable supporters. These activists were already angered by Trump's recent attempts to portray himself as an abortion rights advocate.

“Melania Trump’s support of abortion is anti-feminist and clearly outside the teachings of our Catholic faith. She’s wrong,” Kristan Hawkins, president of the pro-life organization Students for Life of America, wrote on X. “What a missed opportunity to inspire a generation of young women.”

Melania Trump's strategy, such as it is, may be much simpler than activists and politicians might think. She never seemed particularly interested in becoming first lady, nor does she appear interested in winning the job back, having largely disappeared from the 2024 campaign.

But Trump seems interested in at least one thing: selling books. Pointing out that there is controversy within the pages of her memoir will probably help move copies.

Or not. In her post, Hawkins added, “I will not be buying Melania's book.”