PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — Donald Trump claimed “pro-lifers” think Florida’s new six-week abortion ban is “too harsh,” prompting one of his staffers to delete old tweets suggesting Governor Ron DeSantis was not pro-life enough.
Less than a week after Trump refused to give a straight answer to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins questions about when abortion should be made illegal, the former president again refused to take a stand in an interview with The Messenger on Monday.
“He has to do what he has to do,” Trump told the outlet. “If you look at what DeSantis did, a lot of people don't even know if he knew what he was doing. But he signed six weeks, and many people within the pro-life movement feel that that was too harsh.”
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh was one of many conservatives to call out Trump for running to the left of DeSantis.
As I've said many times, the big difference between this primary and 2016 is that Trump is now attacking his opponents from the left. He was invincible when he outflanked everyone from the right. But that is not his strategy anymore, apparently. https://t.co/hxIDtSgRR2
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) May 15, 2023
Others argued that Trump was never a true conservative in the first place.
“Trump isn't, and never was, a conservative so this is no surprise,” tweeted one DeSantis supporter. “He only faked it to get elected.”
TRUMP CAMP DELETES TWEETS
Hours after Trump’s comments began generating headlines, one of his most high-profile staffers, Alex Bruesewitz, conspicuously deleted old tweets criticizing DeSantis for “allowing first-trimester abortions.”
Alex has, until today, insisted that DeSantis has not done *enough* on the abortion issue.
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) May 15, 2023
But after Trump hit just DeSantis from the *left* on abortion, Alex deleted his pro-life tweets.
This is MAGA Inc. in a nutshell, grifters who believe in nothing but their paychecks. https://t.co/HZjxtC8Zwl pic.twitter.com/AZNX4VOklm
Taking a page from his boss’ playbook, Bruesewitz refused to give an answer when asked why he deleted the tweets. Instead, he again criticized the governor for not doing more to protect the preborn.
“Why didn’t Ron tackle abortion before he wanted to run for president,” Bruesewitz asked. “82k babies were killed last year on his watch.”
A DeSantis supporter quipped back: “I'm bookmarking this one for when you eventually have to go pro-choice.”