Trump discusses 100-day plan, abortion pill, immigration, tax cuts in first interview

CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

In his first sit-down broadcast network interview since the election, President-elect Donald Trump said that in his first 100 days in office, he would focus on immigration as well as enacting tax cuts and tariffs.

During the interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” Sunday, the president-elect reaffirmed his support of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fertility procedure opposed by the Catholic Church because it destroys embryonic life and separates conception from marriage. Trump also said he would “probably” not restrict the abortion pill, though he refused to commit to that, noting that “things do change.”

Immigration

Trump pledged that the first thing he would do is address the border issue, beginning with criminals who are in the U.S. illegally. He told NBC he would begin “rapidly” with criminals who are here illegally such as Venezuelan gang members and MS-13.

“We’re starting with the criminals, and we gotta do it,” he said. “And then we’re starting with others and we’re going to see how it goes.”

When asked about deporting everyone who has been living in the country illegally for years, he said: “Well, I think you have to do it.”

“It’s a very tough thing to do, but you have to have rules, regulations, laws; they came in illegally,” Trump said.

He noted that this is unfair for people waiting to come into the country legally.

“We’re going to make it very easy for people to come in, in terms of, they have to pass the test,” Trump said. “They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country.”

When asked about families with mixed immigration status, Trump said he wouldn’t split up families, saying the families could be deported together if they choose.

“I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,” he said.

“We have to do our job,” Trump continued. “You have to have a series of standards and a series of laws.”

Trump also pledged to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants.

When asked whether his plan violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside,” Trump said that he may have to turn to “the people,” but “we have to end it.”

Trump also pledged to “work with the Democrats on a plan” to help Dreamers (immigrants who came into the country illegally as children) stay in the country, noting that Republicans are “very open” to doing so.

The U.S. bishops in November urged the American government to reform the immigration system with “fair and humane treatment” of immigrants. The statement called for a system that “provides permanent relief for childhood arrivals, helps families stay together, and welcomes refugees,” while also “keep[ing] our borders safe and secure.”

In vitro fertilization

During his campaign, Trump promised free in vitro fertilization (IVF), either through the government or insurance mandates. In the interview, Trump reaffirmed his support for the treatment, calling himself “the father of IVF in a certain way.”

Trump cited his involvement in the Alabama IVF controversy earlier this year in which he voiced support for IVF. After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen human embryos constitute children under state statute, the Republican governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, signed legislation granting clinics immunity when they “damage” or cause the “death” of human embryonic life in the process of providing in vitro fertilization (IVF) fertility treatments to women.

Trump noted that in response to the court decision he issued “a statement from the Republican party that we are all for IVF.”

“The Alabama Legislature met the following day and passed it,” he said. “It was a beautiful thing to see.”

But when asked where IVF was on his list of priorities, Trump noted that “we have a lot of other things.”

“We’re going to be talking about it,” he said of IVF. “We’ll be submitting in either the first or second package to Congress the extension of the tax cuts. So that might very well be in there, or it’ll come sometime after that.”

The Catholic Church has long opposed IVF as “morally unacceptable” because of the rejection of the natural procreative act of husband and wife, the commodification of the human child, and the destruction of embryonic human life, which is very common in the procedure.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that though “research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged” (No. 2375), practices such as IVF “disassociate the sexual act from the procreative act” and the act “entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists” (No. 2377).

Abortion pills

Trump reaffirmed that he would not restrict abortion pills, though he refused to commit to the position, noting that things sometimes change.

When asked if he would restrict abortion pills, Trump said: “I’ll probably stay with exactly what I’ve been saying for the last two years, and the answer is no.”

When asked if he committed to that statement, Trump noted that “things do change, but I don’t think it’s going to change at all.”

Medical or chemical abortions — abortions procured via a two-pill regimen — made up 70% of abortions in the U.S. in 2022, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

During the presidential campaign, Trump was criticized by pro-life advocates for his position that abortion law should be left for the states to decide. In June he said he agreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling on the abortion pill saying: “I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it.”

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is “gravely contrary to the moral law” and that “life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception” (CCC, No. 2271).

Catholic World Report