Trump attains holy grail for believers
>>WASHINGTON: When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, some evangelical Christians held their noses over his louche lifestyle and manners in a belief he would be a champion on their key battlefield — the judiciary.
Their bet paid off. Mr Trump is no longer in power but his nominations have led America’s Christian right to its holy grail — the Supreme Court ending the nationwide right to abortion.
If there is one point of unanimity among Mr Trump’s supporters and critics both inside and outside the Republican Party, it is that reshaping the judiciary will be one of his most lasting legacies.
Mr Trump over his fouryear term was able to nominate three justices, or one-third, of the Supreme Court — all of whom sided with the majority Friday in striking down the 1973 Roe v
Wade decision.
Mr Trump — who in 1999, as a celebrity realtor flirting with politics, called himself “very pro-choice” — said in a statement that the historic ruling was “only made possible because I delivered everything as promised”.
Asked in a Fox News interview if he deserved credit, Mr Trump, who rarely goes to church and is seldom known for modesty, said, “God made the decision”.
The shocking legal change sparked protests across the United States, with
President Joe Biden blasting the reversal of Roe v Wade as a “tragic error” and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada writing on Twitter: “The news coming out of the United States is horrific. My heart goes out to the millions
of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion.”
Trying to galvanise voters before the midterm elections and calling on Americans to “make their voices heard”, Mr Biden said the Justice Department
would defend any woman who travels to a different state to have an abortion and said the Department of Health and Human Services would make sure abortion medications were available.
But in order to truly protect a
“constitutional right that is so fundamental”, Mr Biden said, voters must strive to elect candidates who will codify Roe v Wade into federal law.
Mary Frances Berry, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said that, with the relative youth of his appointees, Mr Trump will likely have an enduring legacy on the courts for years to come.
“One thing we know about Trump is even though some of the promises he makes are outrageous, he usually tries to keep his promises — unlike many politicians.”
The decision comes at a key moment for Mr Trump, who slipped in a recent poll of Republicans as he contemplates a 2024 rematch against President Joe Biden. Mr Trump has also come under new scrutiny in congressional hearings over his attempts to stay in power after his loss which culminated in the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Mr Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo, an evangelical who recently backed a rival candidate in a key primary, wrote on Twitter to Mr Trump that “historians will write about you”.
“Americans, born and unborn, will benefit for decades,” Mr Pompeo said.
Caleb Verbois, a political scientist at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, said: “If you’re a strong political conservative, I think it’s undeniable that the three most important things were his three Supreme Court nominations.”
On his legacy, decades later “you’re going to remember four years of mayhem and social media uproar and January 6 — and then you’re going to remember this.”
Mr Trump took the unprecedented step during his 2016 campaign of releasing a list of people he would nominate to the Supreme Court after struggling to solidify support among church-going evangelical Republicans.