Maybe it was the eclipse: I can’t believe it, but Trump is making sense on abortion | Opinion

Now that I know when to expect Donald Trump to talk sense — on the day of a total eclipse in the United States — I can work it into my schedule. Too bad that won’t happen again until Trump is 97 in 2044, though given Joe Biden’s age precedent and Trump’s disdain for the Constitution, the serially-bankrupt real estate tycoon may still be president then.

Still, it is nice to see any politician make sense. Here’s what Trump said in a video on Truth Social — he thinks that states should make the law on abortion and that — get this crazy idea — there should be exceptions to any restrictions for cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother is threatened.

That’s a sensible place for Trump or any national politician to be. (I still can’t believe I just typed that.) In a republic as diverse as our own there are going to be vast differences of opinion. Letting California be California while Texas gets to do Texas, let’s have people choose which kind of America they want to live in and that’s great. Would that more politicians adopt that view on more subjects.

More importantly, just as the Constitution doesn’t say anything about a right to abortion throughout pregnancy, it doesn’t say a word about Congress being the micromanager of surgical techniques and reproductive decisions. Trump’s position is also the constitutional position, a posture he might try a little more often.

What is even better about this outbreak of Trumpy wisdom is that Trump is acting just like a normal politician. His new sensible view is a total flip-flop from February when The New York Times reported that he was in favor of a national 16-week ban.

I don’t know what I am going to do if Trump starts making sense and acting like a normal politician, but if he wants to make a habit of it, I have three suggestions for more flip-flops from fantasy land to reality that would make the coming 2024 election a lot less fraught.

First off, he could confess to his MAGA-world that the whole thing about the 2020 election being stolen was a little off-base. Now that he’s examined all the facts and considered things with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, Biden is the real president. He’s sorry about all those folks caught up in the Jan. 6 prosecutions. He’ll still pardon them all, but only because he is the one who is really to blame.

Second, he could admit NATO is good. We need it. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a good guy and the invasion of Ukraine is a danger to the world order that so many thousands of Americans have died to establish and that we should be loath to abandon in the face of a Communist fanboy who rides around on horseback shirtless. Let’s not just send weapons to the Ukrainian patriots fighting the Kremlin’s army of pardoned murderers — let’s arm those guys to the teeth and help them win.

Third, he could recall his position on immigration when he was hiring them to work for his real estate empire: Immigrants are great, not “poisoning our blood,” as he has said more recently. Look, he could say, we can’t have Biden’s insanity at the border, but we need new young workers for our economy to grow and for America to remain the beacon for the world’s ambitious and its oppressed.

We could name this process of abandoning old Trump positions in favor of new, reality based views the Mar-a-Lago Mambo. If he dances enough, I could even vote for him.

David Mastio, a former editor and columnist for USA Today, is a regional editor for The Center Square and a regular Star Opinion correspondent. Follow him on X: @DavidMastio or email him at dmastio1@yahoo.com