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Donald Trump has broken his silence over his apparent rift with wife Melania Trump around abortion rights, insisting that he told her “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”
In her upcoming memoir, as well as a video posted on X this week, the former first lady has signaled her support for a woman’s right to choose – a stance that appears to put her at odds with her husband and the Republican party.
On Thursday, the former president – who admitted he hadn’t read his wife’s book at a campaign rally last month – was asked about their differences in opinion.
“We spoke about it. And I said, you have to write what you believe. I’m not going to tell you what to do. You have to write what you believe,” Trump told Fox News’s Bill Melugin.
“But I said you have to stick with your heart. I’ve said that to everybody, you have to go with your heart.”
After being noticeably absent from Trump’s campaign trail this election cycle, the former first lady has reentered the spotlight in recent days to plug her new book Melania.
In an excerpt of the memoir obtained by The Guardian, Melania writes of her belief that a woman should be granted “authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”
“Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?” she writes.
“A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.”
She continues: “Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.”
In a video promoting Melania posted on Thursday, she then declared that “individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” adding that “there is no room for compromise” when it comes to abortion rights.
Trump, meanwhile, has previously boasted about his role in the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, ending nationwide access to abortion.
At the presidential debate last month, when the two candidates were asked about the key election issue, Trump also falsely claimed that Democrats support abortion “after birth” and “executing” babies.
Following the VP debate this week, Trump claimed he would veto a federal abortion ban after previously refusing to answer the question directly.
“Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters (the will of the people!),” Trump wrote on X on Wednesday.
“Like Ronald Reagan before me, I fully support the three exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.”
On Tuesday, Melania told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in a rare interview that she and her husband sometimes have “political disagreements.”
Her pro-choice comments have since sparked a backlash from anti-abortion groups.
On Thursday, the president of anti-abortion group Students for Life, Kristan Hawkins branded Melania’s support for abortion rights as “wrong,” condemning her views as “anti-feminist” and anti-Catholic”.
“I won’t be buying her book,” she added.
Hawkins, however, admitted her prerogative is “to defeat Kamala Harris.”
