Ex-Trump official calls Trump’s announcement a ‘Bernie Sanders-like policy’

Our political experts are now back with us. And I want to change gears here. Just moments ago, Donald Trump made a remarkable policy announcement on in vitro fertilization or IVF. Take a listen to this. I'm announcing today in a major that under the Trump administrat your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all associated with IVF treatment. Fertilization for women, IVF tre Because we want more babies, to put it very nicely. Alyssa, there has been a lot of within the Republican Party over What's your sense of why he's announcing this now? Well, listen, Trump obviously realizes that the vast majority of Americans support IV Some of us are here because of I But this is such an absurd policy proclamation. So now Republicans are going to argue for government mandates on insurance companies, or the federal government is going to pay for IVF, which the first round can cost between 10 and $20,000. This goes back to this, you know, this whole argument. They've been attacking the Harris campaign about not being transparent, not answering enough questions. Donald Trump is going to have to how on earth he plans to pay for It feels like as a lifelong conservative Republican, this is a Bernie Sanders like po as though the money's going to fall out of the sky, and we're going to be able to give everyone free things to get their votes. I don't know a traditional Repub that would think that this is so conservative policy. Matt, when it comes to mandating insurance companies, this is largely something that blue states do. What's your take? Well, you know, look, anyway, I understand the insurance industry right now knows there's a lot of mandates out there. I'll put the philosophy of it al and talk about the politics of i The politics of it are smart. I mean, look, Donald Trump was was taking some incoming when you had certain states that were trying to take action He was he was campaigning very smart de to go out there very quickly. If you remember, it was probably either the same or within a day saying he suppor And now this takes a step furthe and I will say also this Donald is not one who often likes to play defense on any issue, and so clearly has seen that the Democratic Party in the campaign has been trying to weaponize this issue across the board and wants to go back on offense. And that's probably among the re you see him talking about the way he is today. And I imagine it's actually going to be pretty smart politics at the end of the day as well, and that he may be losing suppor over this issue. Jasmine, do you think that this fits into a pattern of of Trump changing his tune specifically on reproductive rig Because it really is an issue, as Matt was just saying, that has been so central to this campaign. Central to what, Kamala Harris has been talking about on the tr Yeah. Alex. Well, first I'd like to say I would love to see the Trump campaign's inte before this new proclamation, particularly when it goes to women or suburba But, yeah, I mean, I think that the president, former president, has really gone back and forth first before the primary, we saw him really try to positio more to the center on abortion, understanding just the impact that it had in the 2022 midterms. But then I think choosing JD Vance as his VP was a doubling down on the need to not necessarily have to expand the tent. in the Republican Party when it came to abortion, really trying to double down on the Republican base that so far supports the former president. And now, you see, as a vice pres at the top of the ticket, as she's, moving on abortion and really putting that on the o He's now coming around on IVF and all these other issues. So I think that there is a bit o and forth that, again, as Alyssa said, tha the former president is really gonna have to answer f And we we just heard, the former president weighing in on the abo amendment in Florida. We should note that's a state where, of course, he is a resident. He suggested that he wouldn't vote for it. Let's listen to what he said. This has to be more time. And so that's. And I've told them that I want more weeks. So you'll vote in favor of the a I'm voting that I am going to be that we need more than six weeks Just so you understand. Everybody wanted Roe v Wade terminated for years, 52 years. I got it done. They wanted you to go back to th Exceptions are very important for me, for Ronald Reagan, for others that have navigated this very, very interesting and difficult p So we should note that Trump has previously called the Florida six week abortion ban a terrible mistake when he was running against Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, in the GOP primary. And he's not stating clearly in about how he would vote for the Florida ballot measure that is on the ballot this fall, which would make, abortion legal in that state for up to 24 weeks Michaud, what are your thoughts on what you just heard? That Donald Trump is trying to play very cautiousl with words here. This is somebody who recognizes that the abortion debate is a lightning rod. It is one that has galvanized women, regardless of their partizan str And with a abortion initiative on the ballot in Nove all that is going to do in Flori and several other states where we've seen it happen. it's going to bring out a higher demographic of women who are going to also vote in th and in the down ballot races as I think that what he's trying to do is basica lie to women to try to gather su because he recognizes that women roundly are not fans of an anti-abortion policy. They don't want to see these lim And I think that he recognizes that it brings out various demographics of women. It also has been something that has been a sticking point for the Republican Party. What he also does in turn, is tu what I believe is a larger portion of those, extreme conservatives who supported him initially because he did appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe v Wade. So he's trying to, you know, burn a candle at both ends here, so to speak, because he recognizes that it does not help Republicans to continue pressing the abortion rights issue because it's a losing one for th But on that same token, he knows that if people are dumb enough to believe him this time, he's going to get int and do the exact same thing he did before. You have some really remarkable on what has been, and certainly will be a lightnin rod issue in this election. Thanks you all to, for joining me and for your thou