Former President Donald Trump's estranged niece Mary Trump has warned that Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance will help usher in "the end of women's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy" if the GOP wins back the White House.
The former president announced Vance, a U.S. senator for Ohio, as his running mate on Monday. In a Truth Social post made less than 48 hours after he survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, Trump wrote that Vance was "best suited to assume the position" of vice president.
On Tuesday, Mary Trump called Vance a "misogynist" in her newsletter The Good in US, while also sharing some of her thoughts on X, formerly Twitter. She warned that Vance "hates women as much as" her uncle does, citing the senator's previous calls to "end abortion" without exception.
Mary Trump predicted that a Republican presidential election win would transform the U.S. into a country like that depicted in The Handmaid's Tale, a fictional account of a dystopian future where women have been stripped of nearly all rights by religious conservatives.
"Donald was never going to pick a woman to be his running mate," she wrote. "He has far too much contempt for us. In Vance, he's found someone who hates women as much as he does; someone who wants to control them as much as he does. If the Trump/Vance ticket wins this election, it will be the beginning of the end of women's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy."
"American women will know misery if by some great tragedy Donald and Vance get into the White House because those two will make The Handmaid's Tale our reality," she continued. "We know where Donald and Vance stand. And we need to make sure neither of them gets anywhere near the Oval Office."
Donald was never going to pick a woman to be his running mate. He has far too much contempt for us. In Vance, he’s found someone who hates women as much as he does; someone who wants to control them as much as he does. If the Trump/Vance ticket wins this election, it will be the…
— Mary L. Trump (@MaryLTrump) July 17, 2024
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump/Vance campaign via email on Tuesday night.
Donald Trump, who has frequently boasted about eliminating federal abortion rights by appointing conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who later overturned Roe v. Wade, has been attempting to moderate his abortion views amid his bid to win back the White House.
The softened abortion stance has included a change to the Republican Party's platform, which no longer calls for a national ban on the women's health procedure. Trump has repeatedly claimed that abortion is only about "states' rights," while arguing that Democrats are "extreme" on the issue.
Vance has also seemingly backtracked recently on what was once a hard-line stance in favor of banning abortion at the federal level. The senator provoked fury from some conservatives earlier this month after saying that he was in favor of allowing access to the "abortion pill" mifepristone.
The reelection campaign of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, which has been backed by Mary Trump, has placed a heavy focus on Trump's abortion policies, with messaging that often points out that the former president's judicial nominees helped overturn Roe.
The abortion section of the Biden-Harris campaign website also claims that "Donald Trump has plans to ban abortion nationwide," while promising that "Joe Biden will never let that happen."
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About the writer
Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
