Takeaways from Trump’s TIME interview |
You should probably take the time to read Donald Trump’s TIME interview in full. It’s hard to get past perhaps the most discussed moments — repeating he may pardon all January 6th convicts, warning “it depends on the fairness of the election” when asked about future violence — which go beyond typical politics. But it’s also a rare case of a traditional outlet pressing him on ordinary policy, from trade (he repeated his call for a 10% global tariff, and said “it may be more than that”) to Israel (“I’m not sure a two-state solution is going to work”). Always slippery on details, he was especially evasive on abortion, where he’s rarely been pressed on the practical realities of post-Dobbs policy. He dodged on whether he’d restrict abortion pills (“I’m not gonna say it yet”), on whether he’d invoke the 19th century Comstock Act to do so (“I will be making a statement on that over the next 14 days”) and on states “prosecuting women for getting abortions” (“It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions.”) He also declined to say whether he’d vote for Florida’s abortion rights referendum in November, which would likely overturn a 6-week ban that he criticized as “too severe.” — Benjy Sarlin |