Trump hails women's health issues, details abortion exemptions

Donald Trump, calling women’s health issues “very important,” is making it clear he now supports a woman’s right to chose an abortion in the case of rape, incest or if her life is at risk.

“Ronald Reagan had those same exceptions. And many Republicans have those same exceptions,” Trump said in a wide-ranging, sit-down interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”


The billionaire real estate developer, who has become the surprising early leader this summer in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has drawn fire for his sometimes crude characterizations of women. And his views on abortion have evolved from his support of abortion rights years ago.

“I cherish women. I understand the importance of women. I have such respect for women,” he told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd. “I have many executives in my organization that are women that, frankly, get paid more than many of my men executives. …They’ve done great with me.”

“Early on when I was building major towers, I had women in charge of a couple of them,” Trump went on. “Really big ones and really important ones. And that was unheard of in the construction industry. If you look back 30 years, that was, like, totally unheard of. So I understand women.”

Trump didn’t say directly if he would support shutting down the government to cut federal funding from Planned Parenthood after a series of undercover videos showed staff talking about the use of fetal tissue. But he said it should stop performing abortions.

Trump sat down for the “Meet the Press” interview Saturday in Iowa, where he visited the State Fair, long a traditional stump stop for presidential contenders. And Todd pressed him on a number of political and policy issues.

On running as an independent if he fails in his bid for the GOP presidential nomination, Trump said he was “not prepared to close that door yet.” But he added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if someday in the not too distant future it happens.”

“They are treating me very well,” he said of unnamed Republican Party leaders. “I just want to be treated fairly. And, you know, I’m a person that believes in leverage.”

On national security, Trump, who differs with some of his conservative GOP rivals on abortion, lined up with the more hawkish candidates on terrorism and the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“ISIS is taking over a lot of the oil and certain areas of Iraq. And I said you take away their wealth, that you go and knock the hell out of the oil, take back the oil. We take over the oil, which we should have done in the first place,” Trump said, adding he could be support using U.S. ground troops in Iraq to secure the oil fields for revenue.

“We’re going to have so much money,” he said.

Asked about Saudi Arabia, Trump said oil isn’t now as crucial to the U.S.

“The primary reason we are with Saudi Arabia is because we need the oil. Now, we don’t need the oil so much” Trump said. “And if we let our people really go, we wouldn’t need the oil at all.”

On the Iran nuclear deal now before Congress, Trump didn’t specifically address how he might handle it as president, but he didn’t align himself with other GOP rivals, who have pledged to scuttle it.

“I’m really good at looking at a contract and finding things within a contract,” Trump said. “I would police that contract so tough that they don’t have a chance.”

And on special interests in Washington, Trump pledged to ban lobbyists from his administration, if he’s president.

“I would certainly have a ban,” he said. “You can’t put a lifetime ban. But you can certainly make it three, four years.”

Lobbyists have “power that they shouldn’t have,” he said, readily acknowledging his past large political contributions.

“I gave to everybody, OK?” he said, singling out the large presidential campaign kitties of Republican Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state.

“They’re going to control whoever’s in,” he said, referring to “the lobbyists and the special interests and the donors.”