Donald Trump Talks U.S.-Mexico Wall, Appointing Pro-Life Supreme Court Justice
Less than a week after winning the election, president-elect Donald Trump discussed his primary goals for office on 60 Minutes with journalist Leslie Stahl. One of the first items, Trump said, is appointing a Supreme Court justice who is pro-life and pro-gun.
Stahl pressed the president-elect on the future of abortion rights and the likelihood of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized the procedure across the country. During his campaign, Trump said that women who get abortions should face some form of punishment. Vice President-elect Mike Pence has a record as one of the most stridently anti-abortion politicians in the U.S.
“If it ever were overturned, it would go back to the states,” Trump said. Indeed, if Roe were overturned, it’s likely many states would ban the procedure, making abortion inaccessible for millions of women. Trump added that any decision on Roe v. Wade had a “long way to go” and isn’t an immediate priority.
In terms of recent Supreme Court decisions, Trump said he is “fine” with same-sex marriage (“It’s settled, it’s done … these cases have gone to the Supreme Court and I’m fine with that”) and described himself as a “supporter” of the LGBTQ community – a sentiment not shared by many in that community, who point to Trump’s past statements as well as Pence’s support for, among other things, so-called “conversion therapy.”
After meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump relayed to Stahl that his three primary goals in office will be health care, immigration and lowering taxes. On the first point, Trump said he would simultaneously repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “[We’re] not going to have a two-day or a two-year period where there is nothing,” Trump said, when asked about the period in between repealing and replacing.
Echoing a statement he made to the Wall Street Journal on Friday, Trump also claimed his plan would “try to keep Obamacare’s strongest assets,” including allowing people age 26 and under to remain covered under their parents’ insurance policies.
On immigration, one of the pillars of his campaign, Trump reiterated his commitment to building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. Stahl asked whether he would be OK with, instead, a fence. “There could be some fencing in certain areas,” he said, “but in other areas I think a wall would be more appropriate.”
The president-elect added that he wants to immediately deport two to three million immigrants – those who have “criminal records, gang members, [and] drug dealers,” he said, echoing his campaign announcement speech, in which he characterized Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers. Trump told Stahl that future mass deportations would wait until after a wall is built. “Before we make that determination, we want to secure our border,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Speaker Ryan told CNN this weekend, “We are not planning on erecting a deportation force. Donald Trump’s not planning on that.”
Watch the full interview with Donald Trump below via CBS.