Promises made, promises kept… even after one full term, two impeachment trials and 17 months since leaving the White House.
President Donald Trump’s ambitious campaign promises from way back in 2016 are still panning out, and this week’s landmark Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade is unquestionably one of the most significant.
Need a refresher?
Let’s take a walk down memory lane this fine first weekend in a post-Roe world and examine what Trump said he’d about the egregiously bad 1973 Supreme Court decision that has led to the government-sanctioned slaughter of millions.
Leading up to the 2016 election, Trump vowed to appoint justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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“I am pro-life,” then-candidate Trump said during his final debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, as CNBC reported at the time.
When asked if he would like to see the high court overturn Roe, the future president replied that this would be a matter of course if he had his pick for justices.
“That’ll happen automatically, in my opinion, because I am putting pro-life justices on the court,” he answered, according to NBC News. “I will say this: It will go back to the states, and the states will then make a determination.”
Clinton, meanwhile, was abundantly clear where she stood on Roe.
“I strongly support Roe v. Wade,” Clinton said. “I will defend Roe v. Wade. I will defend a woman’s right to make her own decision.”
Does Trump deserve credit for Roe being overturned?
During that debate, Trump would criticize his opponent for supporting partial-birth abortion, which he colorfully and aptly described as when a baby is “ripped out” of a mother’s womb to be terminated.
I don’t know about you, but this was one of the key moments at which yours truly, a staunch cynic about politics at the time, realized how much was at stake in 2016 and enthusiastically headed to the polls to pull the lever for a man who just months earlier I could hardly take seriously.
Back then, however, we couldn’t have known that Trump would go on to appoint three pro-life and strict constitutionalist justices who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and return the issue to the states.
But that’s exactly what he did.
During his time in office, Trump successfully appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the high court, establishing a strong conservative majority along with the stalwart Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
In reaction to Friday’s decision, Trump said, “This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago.”
While known for his penchant for patting himself on the back, Trump instead gave credit to the higher power whom millions of his supporters look to for their own determination as to the morality of abortion.
“God made the decision,” he said.
Pro-Trump Christians are often accused of forsaking their faith to vote for the very imperfect and often quite un-Christ-like Trump, but the truth is that God has used very flawed and even outright ungodly men for his aims throughout world history.
In fact, some of these men — like King Cyrus in the book of Daniel, who was perfectly happy to sentence any of his citizens to death for worshipping anyone other than him — gave God credit for his awesome power and influence on human events despite their own egoism and failure to adhere to his will.
Egotistical and yet willing to give credit to God when credit is due? Sounds like Trump in a nutshell if you ask me — but instead of praising God for sparing his friend from being ripped apart by lions, Trump is giving God credit for a ruling that will allow the people of dozens of states to ban or severely restrict the legal practice of ripping apart unborn babies in the womb.
Yup, pro-Trump Christians were criticized for trusting that a gregarious, larger-than-life reality star and real estate mogul could put events in motion to destroy Roe v. Wade, but they were the ones paying attention at the time.
And while they certainly couldn’t have predicted what a wild ride the next six years would be for our country, they could see what it would mean for the future of Roe and legalized abortion in the United States if they elected the man who wanted to appoint justices who would vote to overturn that terrible decision.
I’d be willing to bet that, all things considered, they’d vote for him all over again knowing that his presidency would result in something with a legacy that will last into the ages.
I don’t care who this triggers — today, I’m thanking God for President Trump.
