Donald Trump to Launch Presidential Exploratory Committee, Says He’s Pro-Life

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 18, 2015   |   12:41PM   |   Washington, DC

Today, businessman and reality television show star Donald Trump is set to launch a presidential exploratory committee to gauge interest in a possible run for the Republican nomination for president. Trump has repeatedly said he’s pro-life on abortion.

Trump has hinted before that he wold run for president but always backed down in favor of continuing his popular reality show, The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice. This time, however, news reports indicate Trump will not renew the show’s contract and will pursue a presidential bid instead.

Here’s more:

Trump will not renew his NBC contract for “The Apprentice” reality TV series, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported late Tuesday, citing an unidentified senior adviser. WMUR confirmed the news Tuesday.

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In a statement obtained by the Union Leader announcing the committee, Trump mentions politicians who are “all talk and no action,” points to his own business record and casts himself as “the only one who can make America truly great again!”

The real estate mogul visits the Granite State on Thursday to meet with local business owners and leaders, and will attend a summit hosted by the state GOP next month.

Trump has remained vocal criticizing President Obama in recent years and has said he is weighing a potential run.

In 2013, the New York Post reported that Trump had spent more than $1 million to research a potential 2016 bid. Announcing an exploratory committee is his most concrete step toward launching a campaign.

In recent years, businessman and media mogul Donald Trump has indicated he is pro-life on abortion. Earlier this year, he repeated that.

“I’m pro-life and I have been pro-life,” Trump says. “It’s an issue and a strong issue.”

In 2011, Trump has said numerous times that he is pro-life on abortion and that he changed his views from supporting abortion to pro-life based on his relationships with close personal friends who had children. Their pregnancy experiences, Trump maintains, allowed him to mature on the abortion issue to the point of now opposing abortion.

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In an interview with the Des Moines Register newspaper, Trump expanded on those comments.

“If you look at it, I said, ‘It really, really troubles me, and it really, really bothers me, the whole concept of abortion.’ This was years ago, and even then it really bothered me, but I went on the other side of the line,” Trump said. “But in thinking about it over the years, I’ve had instances, and one instance in particular, a friend had a child who they were going to abort, and now they have it, and the child is incredible. And the man, he changed his views also because of that.”

“As I’ve grown older, as I’ve seen things happen in life, I’ve changed my views — and others have also,” he said.

Trump said he believes abortion should only be legal in the very rare cases when a woman is pregnant by rape or incest or when the life of the mother is jeopardized by the pregnancy.

“Ronald Reagan had the same basic stances I had, and I absolutely believe in the three instances” of exception, he said. “I hope that I can convince Iowans that I will be the best to save our country, and the fact is, I am pro-life.”