Our first Trump disappointment – comments on Planned Parenthood

In an interview with CNN yesterday morning, Republican primary candidate Donald Trump has said he is open to continuing to fund Planned Parenthood, but with some seemingly conflicting statements.

Trump:  “The problem that I have with Planned Parenthood is the abortion situation. It is like an abortion factory, frankly, and you can’t have it. And you just shouldn’t be funding it. That should not be funded by the government, and I feel strongly about that.”

And further:

“What I would do when the time came, I’d look at the individual things they do, and maybe some of the individual things they do are good. I know a lot of the things are bad. But certainly the abortion aspect of it should not be funded by government, absolutely.”

“I would look at the good aspects of [Planned Parenthood], and I would also look, because I’m sure they do some things properly and good and that are good for women, and I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also. But we have to take care of women.”

It appeared he is unaware of the mission of Planned Parenthood (any money given to them funds abortion) and has not seen the grizzly and controversial videos showing Planned Parenthood executives talking about the sale and preparation of human body parts.

Conservative media have launched attacks, RedState’s Erick Erickson, who, having previously disinvited Mr. Trump from the RedState Gathering for his remarks about Megyn Kelly, now tells his readers Mr. Trump is no conservative and never has been.  

Author’s note: I get the feeling Mr. Trump’s campaign team let him down on this.  Up to this point he has done a good job in not peeling off the far right, but his lack of knowledge of the details here could hurt him badly.  

This is a problem and may cost Mr. Trump in the polls in the short term, but more importantly may cause a loss of enthusiasm from well-informed conservatives. He has again underestimated the power of the tiny minority of very vocal, very raucous and very influential far right conservatives.

There is a small possibility this is a strategy, that he is looking ahead to the general election.  But this will backfire seriously if his remarks prove to derail the conservative effort to defund Planned Parenthood.