Then-President Donald Trump chats with British Prime Minister Theresa May at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan on June 28, 2019.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Images via Getty Images
A new book from Maggie Haberman details Trump’s first meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
He reportedly brought up abortion, saying “imagine if some animals with tattoos raped your daughter.”
The graphic statement suggests a private sympathy with abortion rights, despite his record.
When former President Donald Trump first met then-Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain, he struck up a graphic conversation with her about abortion.
According to an excerpt in The Washington Post of New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s forthcoming book, “Confidence Man,” the former president seemed to offer some sympathy to those who are in favor of abortion rights — though in stark, dehumanizing terms.
“Some people are pro-life, some people are pro-choice,” Trump said to May, according to the book. “Imagine if some animals with tattoos raped your daughter and she got pregnant?”
He also reportedly described then-Vice President Mike Pence — an evangelical Christian — as the “tough one” on abortion.
The conversation presumably took place in January 2017, when May visited the United States and became the first world leader to meet with Trump, who had just taken office.
Insider has reached out to May’s office for comment.
As president, Trump often sought to satisfy his evangelical base, most of whom are strongly opposed to abortion rights. Most significantly, he appointed three conservative Supreme Court justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — who then voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June of this year, ending constitutional protections for abortion.
But Trump is also known to have been more sympathetic to abortion in the past, including stating in an interview with Meet The Press in 1999 that he is “pro-choice in every respect.”
During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, then-rival Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas even sought to make it a campaign issue.