Norfolk Southern Agrees to $600M Settlement over Ohio Train Derailment

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Norfolk Southern Agrees to $600M Settlement over Ohio Train Derailment

(Headline USA) Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay $600 million in a class-action lawsuit settlement related to a fiery train derailment in February 2023 in eastern Ohio.

The company said the agreement, if approved by the court, will resolve all class-action claims within a 20-mile radius from the derailment and, for those residents who choose to participate, personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius from the derailment.

About 50 cars of the freight train—which had roughly 150 cars and three locomotives—derailed on the outskirts of East Palestine, near the Pennsylvania state line, with some cars transporting hazardous materials. An evacuation covered 1,500 to 2,000 of the town’s approximately 4,800 to 4,900 residents.

Norfolk Southern said Tuesday that individuals and businesses will be able to use compensation from the settlement in any manner they see fit to address potential adverse impacts from the derailment, which could include health care needs, property restoration and compensation for any net business loss.

Individuals within 10-miles of the derailment may, at their discretion, choose to receive additional compensation for any past, current, or future personal injury from the derailment.

The company said that the settlement doesn’t include or constitute any admission of liability, wrongdoing, or fault.

The settlement is expected to be submitted for preliminary approval to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio later in April 2024. Payments to class members under the settlement could begin by the end of the year, subject to final court approval.

Norfolk Southern has already spent more than $1.1 billion on its response to the derailment, including more than $104 million in direct aid to East Palestine and its residents.

Partly because Norfolk Southern is paying for the cleanup, President Joe Biden has never declared a disaster in East Palestine, which is a sore point for many residents. The railroad has promised to create a fund to help pay for the long-term health needs of the community, but that hasn’t happened yet.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys said the deal is the result of a year of intense investigation of the derailment, and should provide meaningful relief to residents.

“This resolution comes shortly after the one-year anniversary of the disaster and will provide substantial compensation to all affected residents, property owners, employees and businesses residing, owning or otherwise having a legal interest in property, working, owning or operating a business for damages resulting from the derailment and release of chemicals,” said the company’s legal team in a statement.

The railroad also announced preliminary first-quarter earnings of 23 cents per share Tuesday to reflect the impact of the settlement.

Railroad CEO Alan Shaw, who is fighting for his job against an activist investor who wants to overhaul the railroad’s operations, said Norfolk Southern is “becoming a more productive and efficient railroad. There is still more work to be done to achieve industry-competitive margins.”

The railroad said even though volume was up 4% during the quarter, its revenue fell by 4% because of lower fuel surcharge revenue and changes in the mix of shipments it handled.

Ancora Holdings is trying to persuade investors to support its nominees for Norfolk Southern’s board at the railroad’s May 9 annual meeting.

Last week federal officials said that the aftermath of the train derailment doesn’t qualify as a public health emergency because widespread health problems and ongoing chemical exposures haven’t been documented.

The Environmental Protection Agency never approved that designation after the February 2023 Norfolk Southern derailment even though the disaster forced the evacuation of half the town of East Palestine and generated many fears about potential long-term health consequences of the chemicals that spilled and burned.

The contamination concerns were exacerbated by the decision to blow open five tank cars filled with vinyl chloride and burn that toxic chemical three days after the derailment.

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said recently that her agency’s investigation showed that the vent and burn of the vinyl chloride was unnecessary because the company that produced that chemical was sure no dangerous chemical reaction was happening inside the tank cars. But the officials who made the decision have said they were never told that.

The NTSB’s full investigation into the cause of the derailment won’t be complete until June, though that agency has said that an overheating wheel bearing on one of the railcars that wasn’t detected in time by a trackside sensor likely caused the crash.

The EPA has said the cleanup in East Palestine is expected to be complete sometime later this year.

Shares of Norfolk Southern Corp., based in Atlanta, fell about 1.3% before the opening bell Tuesday.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Fla. Woman Shoots Interstate Drivers, Says God Told Her to Because of Eclipse

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Fla. Woman Shoots Interstate Drivers, Says God Told Her to Because of Eclipse

(Headline USA) A woman checked out of a Florida hotel and told staff that she was going on a God-directed shooting spree because of the solar eclipse, then shot two drivers on Interstate 10 before being arrested and charged with attempted murder Monday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Taylon Nichelle Celestine, 22, of Georgia, entered the highway 115 miles from the Alabama border in the Florida Panhandle and headed west.

Within 5 miles, she fired into a passing car several times, spraying auto glass and grazing the driver in the arm, the department said in a statement.

She then fired at a second vehicle, hitting the driver in the neck. The driver was injured and treated at a hospital.

Troopers stopped the woman after she drove for about 16 miles and found her with an AR-15 rifle and 9mm handgun. She was arrested and booked into the Holmes County jail.

She was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and improper discharge of a firearm.

The Florida Highway Patrol didn’t provide details about bail or Celestine’s legal representation.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

How Much Economic Growth Can Americans Put on Their Credit Cards?

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How Much Economic Growth Can Americans Put on Their Credit Cards?

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) After moderating credit card spending in January, American consumers pulled out the plastic yet again in February.

Credit card balances surged, driving overall consumer debt up by another $14.1 billion, a 3.4 percent annual increase.

Americans now owe $5.05 trillion in consumer debt, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. 

Meanwhile, borrowing for big-ticket items has collapsed, indicating that consumers are feeling the strain of their ever-increasing debt load.

The Federal Reserve consumer debt figures include credit card debt, student loans, and auto loans, but do not factor in mortgage debt. When you include mortgages, U.S. households are buried under a record level of debt. As of the end of 2023, total household debt stood at $17.5 trillion.

Pundits and politicians keep talking about the robust economy and the resilient American consumer, but this economic growth is courtesy of Visa and Mastercard. It’s not exactly a sustainable economic trajectory.

Revolving debt, primarily reflecting credit card balances, grew by 10.2 percent in January as Americans added another 11.3 billion to their credit card bills. American consumers are now buried under a record $1.34 trillion in revolving debt.

To put the percentage increase into perspective, the annual increase prior to the pandemic in 2019 was 3.6 percent.

The double whammy of rising debt and interest rates exacerbates the debt problem. Average credit card interest rates eclipsed the previous record high of 17.87 percent months ago. The average annual percentage rate (APR) currently stands at 20.75 percent, with some companies charging rates as high as 28 percent.

That underscores the fundamental problem of running an economy on credit. It’s expensive and credit cards have an inconvenient thing called a limit.

This is one of the problems confronting the Federal Reserve. Even though inflation remains sticky, the central bank needs to ease interest rates before they bury debt-saddled American consumers.

Consumers are already laboring under the strain of rising debt. According to the New York Fed, delinquencies increased in every debt category during the fourth quarter of 2023, with about 8.5 percent of credit card balances in delinquency.

“Credit card and auto loan transitions into delinquency are still rising above pre-pandemic levels,” said Wilbert van der Klaauw, economic research advisor at the New York Fed. “This signals increased financial stress, especially among younger and lower-income households.”

Consumer debt is also putting strain on banks. The net charge-off rate on credit card loans came in at 4.15 percent as of the end of 2023. It was the highest rate for this portfolio reported by the banking industry since the first quarter of 2012.

Non-revolving debt reveals a completely different problem. Americans have run out of spending power and they are cutting back on big purchases. This is bad news for an economy that relies on consumer spending.

As prices skyrocketed in 2022, Americans blew through their savings to make ends meet. Aggregate savings peaked at $2.1 trillion in August 2021. By the summer of 2023, the San Francisco Fed estimated that aggregate savings had dropped to $190 billion.

In other words, Americans ate away $1.9 trillion in savings in just two years.

Then they turned to credit cards.

Now it appears that Americans may be maxing out their credit.

Non-revolving debt, primarily made up of auto loans, student loans, and loans for other durable goods, tanked in February, increasing by just $2.9 percent, a 0.9 percent annual increase.

This continues a trend we’ve seen in recent months. Before the pandemic, revolving credit growth averaged 5 percent. 

Joe Biden, Jerome Powell, and the talking heads can brag all they want about the “strong economy,” but Americans are borrowing to buy it. There is one word to describe this dynamic.

Unsustainable. 

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for MoneyMetals.com with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Here’s One Reason This Gold Bull Run Likely Still Has Legs

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Here’s One Reason This Gold Bull Run Likely Still Has Legs

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Gold has surged to record highs of over $1,350 per ounce, and there is reason to believe this bull run has plenty of legs left.

Gold dipped below $2,000 for the last time in mid-February. Since that time, it has gained nearly 18 percent. But despite the rally, a lot of investors in the West have not jumped on the bandwagon – yet.

In fact, pundits on financial news networks have been poo-pooing this gold bull run all the way up. On March 8, CNBC featured a commodity analyst urging people to sell gold. Since then, the price is up over 8 percent.

You can see that institutional investors have been slow to jump into the rally by looking at the flow of gold into and out of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). 

A gold ETF is backed by metal owned and stored by the issuer. In most cases, investing in an ETF does not entitle you to any amount of physical gold. You own a share of the ETF, not gold itself. The movement of gold into and out of ETFs can have a significant impact on supply and demand dynamics.

Even with the price of gold climbing rapidly, there are still outflows of metal from gold-backed funds. The last time ETFs added gold on net globally was October 2023, and that was a one-off event.

But as Abrdn director of investment strategy Robert Minter noted in an interview with Kitco News, outflows of gold from ETFs have slowed to a trickle in recent weeks. Even a slowdown in selling can shift supply and demand dynamics, and if ETFs begin adding gold, that shift could be significant.

Over the last year, around 750 tons of gold have flowed out of ETFs globally. That dumped a large supply of gold into the marketplace.

Central banks took up that slack and then some. In 2023, central banks globally increased their gold reserves by a net of 1,037 tons. That was just 45 tons short of 2022’s multi-decade record.

There is no indication that central bank gold buying will slow down. As Minter noted, “If you were a prudent central bank fund manager in some of these countries, you would diversify away from the dollar to reduce your risk, plain and simple.”

With ETF gold selling slowing and a flip to buying possibly on the horizon, along with continued robust central bank buying, we could see a significant strain on the gold supply, driving prices even higher.

Minter said he thinks a lot of institutional investors are waiting until the Federal Reserve delivers a rate cut to jump into the fray. And while sticky inflation and strong economic data have pushed the timing of cuts later into the year, Minter said he doesn’t think the Fed can wait too long given the levels of debt in the economy.

“If you were the Chair, you would have to know the impact of the magnitude of the rate rises you’ve done in a short time will have on the economy. This kind of monetary policy usually breaks something in the economy on a structural level, and you have to play catch up really quickly. You certainly wouldn’t risk much higher unemployment just to bring housing inflation down a few tenths of a percent.”

Minter said regardless of the timing, cuts are the next move for the central bank. That could give buying another boost, and that is bullish for gold.

“Regardless of timing or magnitude, the next Fed funds move is a cut, and historically, that led to 57 percent, 235 percent, and 69 percent gold price increases in 2000, 2006, and 2018. Even with prices up 18 percent, we haven’t seen anything yet.”

The reality is the Fed structurally broke the economy more than a decade ago when it pushed interest rates to zero in 2008 and held them there for nearly a decade, and then doubled down with loose monetary policy during the pandemic. It’s only a matter of time before that breakage manifests itself. At that point, the Fed will be forced to cut much faster and deeper than most people anticipate.

Minter is right. We haven’t seen anything yet.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for MoneyMetals.com with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Fani Willis Begs Appeals Court Not to Oust Her from Trump Case

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Fani Willis Begs Appeals Court Not to Oust Her from Trump Case

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Fani Willis, the embattled Fulton County district attorney, has formally requested an appeals court not to remove her from the Georgia election case against former President Donald Trump and other co-defendants. 

As reported by Daily Caller, Willis submitted a court filing on Monday following the presiding Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to oust her lover and special prosecutor Nathan Wade from the case after disturbing conflicts of interest allegations.

Willis told the appeals court that McAfee found “the evidence insufficient to establish any actual conflict of interest and declined to dismiss the indictment,” thus she argued she should remain on the case.

Willis’s plea follows McAfee’s ruling that she and Wade could not simultaneously lead the case related to alleged illegal efforts to question the presidential election results of Georgia in 2020. Following this ruling, Wade resigned from the case. 

At the heart of the controversy lies Willis and Wade’s secret love affair, which involved luxurious vacation trips funded by Wade. These trips occurred while they were preparing the criminal case against Trump, creating what has been widely criticized as an evident conflict of interest. 

Despite Wade’s abrupt departure from the case, Trump and other co-defendants demanded to an appeals court that Willis be also removed from the case or have it dismissed entirely. Trump’s defense attorneys say Willis hired Wade to enrich themselves from Fulton County contracts. 

However, Willis has long maintained that her relationship with Wade began only after she hired him to prosecute the case. She also claimed, without providing evidence, that she reimbursed Wade for the extravagant vacation trips in cash and did not benefit from the Fulton County contract.

In the Monday filing, as reported by the Caller, Willis wrote, “Days of evidence and testimony failed to disclose anything like a calculated pre-trial plan designed to prejudice the defendants or secure their convictions.” 

She added: “The applicants have not identified any public statement injecting the District Attorney’s personal belief as to the defendants’ guilt or appealing to the public weighing of evidence.” 

Willis also defended her controversial comments made during a church service in January, where she suggested that her relationship with Wade was under scrutiny solely because of their race. Trump’s defense attorneys argued that these remarks might have prejudiced the jury against him and the co-defendants.

In response to the criticism, Willis argued that the church claims were “too vague, brief and limited in scope to imply any defendant harbored racial prejudice, particularly to the point of requiring disqualification.” 

It isn’t immediately clear when the appeals court will decide whether Willis can remain on the case.

Disturbing Footage Shows ‘Wannabe Thugs’ Ambushing Distressed Cop’s Car

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Disturbing Footage Shows ‘Wannabe Thugs’ Ambushing Distressed Cop’s Car

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Viral video footage captured the exact moment when a group of masked “wannabe-thugs” ambushed and vandalized the cruiser car of a female police officer in Fairfax County, Virginia. This occurred just seconds before a second officer was struck down by the violent crowd. 

According to the Fairfax County Police Department, the unnamed officer was responding to a street takeover before the group of individuals blocked her from moving in any direction. The video shows a man jumping on the cruiser vehicle, while others banged on the windows.

As seen in the harrowing footage published by the New York Post and WUSA9, the officer quickly called for assistance as she was overwhelmed by the group of people. “I’ve got a huge crowd. They’re hitting the car,” she radioed.

Also visible in the video were men wearing ski masks, with one man holding what appears to be a traffic cone. Another man reportedly brandished a rifle during the same incident. 

Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said during a press conference on Wednesday that he believed the men wanted to drag the officer out of the vehicle. “Thankfully, they didn’t get into the car, and we’re very grateful for that,” he said, as reported by the Post. 

Davis also said that the incident could have easily turned deadly, further adding: “I believe we narrowly escaped a line-of-duty death scenario of our own. Because one of our officers was surrounded by a bunch of masked, tough-guy-wannabe-thugs who surrounded her car, and acted in a criminal manner, in a way that I’ll tell you is never going to happen again in Fairfax County.”  

As officers stormed the area to rescue the stranded female officer, the group of individuals quickly dispersed before one driver struck an officer.

Fairfax police issued a subsequent arrest warrant for the alleged driver of the car, Ronal Urrea-Hernandez. He is being sought on charges of felony hit and run, speeding to elude and driving without a license.

Another individual, Carlos A. Martinez Jr., aged 18, is being sought for reckless driving. A third man, Dylan Heckard, age 20, is wanted for abduction, assault on a law enforcement officer, obstruction of justice and wearing a mask in public. 

The man who jumped on the police car and blocked the officer from leaving will be charged with disorderly conduct and abduction. 

The Fairfax Police Department announced that the criminal investigation division and special investigation division are currently investigating further developments. However, it isn’t immediately clear whether the individuals have been apprehended. 

Headline USA contacted the Springfield District and the Franconia District of the Fairfax County Police Department to inquire about any arrests made.

Two officers informed Headline USA that requests for information should be directed to the media relations department, which operates during regular business hours. This article was published after midnight.

Young Voters Abandon Biden, Despite Student Loan Cancelation Promises

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Young Voters Abandon Biden, Despite Student Loan Cancelation Promises

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Despite promising to forgive student loans, young people may still not vote for Joe Biden at the end of this year, polling data indicated.

The loss in support is partially attributable to Biden’s support of Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, considering that young people tend to support Palestine and Hamas, according to several Democratic pollsters and strategists who talked to the Daily Caller.

“He’s doing all the right things that you would think young voters would flock to, but unfortunately, they haven’t been able to put that message out there in the community. Well, you’ve done eight things, but this ninth thing is unforgivable. And you put your arm around this warmonger in Israel, and then, you know, you can’t unwrap yourself from him,” Adolph Mongo, a Democratic strategist based in Michigan, said.

The White House previously said that Biden has already forgiven billions of dollars worth of student loans for more than 3.6 million Americans.

An anonymous Democratic pollster and redistricting consultant focused on working-class racial minorities said that he’s most concerned about wealthy college students and young voters flocking from Biden.

“These people can actually tank an election, and they have no problems with it because their lives will not be affected,” he said.

On Nov. 7, 2023, a coalition of far-left groups that seek to turn out young voters wrote a letter to Biden warning of bad electoral consequences due to his stance on the war between Israel and Palestine. Among the organizations were March for Our Lives, United We Dream, Gen Z for Change and the Sunrise Movement.

“We are experts in youth voting behavior who have worked tirelessly across the years to generate Generation Z and Millennial enthusiasm for civic action under a variety of circumstances. We write to you to issue a very stark and unmistakable warning: you and your Administration’s stance on Gaza risks millions of young voters staying home or voting third party next year,” the letter said.

Biden Slammed for Odd Video Calling on Americans to Wear Eye Protection

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Biden Slammed for Odd Video Calling on Americans to Wear Eye Protection

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Joe Biden faced backlash on Monday after sharing a video urging Americans not to “be silly” and to “wear protective eyewear” during Monday’s 2024 solar eclipse. 

Biden’s remarks appeared to be a jab at his 2024 opponent, former President Donald Trump, whose 2017 eclipse-viewing acts went viral. However, critics swiftly reprimanded Biden for the video, which showed him on the White House’s Truman Balcony.

Among those rebuking Biden on Twitter was conservative actress Roseanne Barr, who quipped, “Joe- What’s harder to look at, the eclipse or your daughter’s dairy? *I did not kill myself for the record.”  

Barr’s tweet poked fun at the infamous Ashley Biden’s diary, where she discussed childhood sexual trauma.

Conservative commentator Gunther Eagleman, boasting nearly 600,000 followers, lectured Biden for focusing on the solar eclipse instead of the chaos rocking the southern border.

“Our border is wide open and you are posting about an eclipse…  No wonder you are despised by so many,” he wrote on Twitter.

The conservative non-profit ForAmerica mocked Biden’s video by sharing a photo of the president comically wearing eclipse sunglasses backward. Notably, earlier this year, Biden caused concern when he wore a construction hard hat backward.

Further adding to Biden’s detriment, Twitter personality Paul A. Szypula joined the chorus of criticism, sarcastically stating, “No one should ever take health advice from Joe Biden. Consult a doctor.” 

Another user shared a meme depicting the solar eclipse with a shape resembling Trump’s face, reminiscent of a similar video shared by Trump on his Truth Social page.

Criticism against Biden comes as the president grapples with plummeting approval ratings for his handling of various issues, including the economy, the southern border and global conflicts. 

This criticism has translated into the polls, with many indicating Trump—the presumed Republican nominee—taking the lead.

Scroll down to see some of the criticism aimed at Biden:

Trump Sues Corrupt NYC Judge after Gag-Order Overreach, Seeks Change of Venue

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Trump Sues Corrupt NYC Judge after Gag-Order Overreach, Seeks Change of Venue

(Brett Rowland, The Center Square) Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Monday against the state judge overseeing his hush-money case in New York less than a week before jury selection is to begin.

A state appellate court docket indicated the former president filed suit against New York Justice Juan Merchan. The documents remained under seal.

Nonetheless, it was likely that the lawsuit related to the public scandal that arose over Merchan’s decision to impose a gag order on Trump last week for criticizing the fact that Merchan’s daughter was a well-paid Democrat operative who had run campaigns promoting Trump’s conviction.

Merchan, who previously donated to the Biden campaign in the 2020 run against Trump, insisted that his daughter’s conflict of interest would not taint his own judgement, although the gag order suggests otherwise.

New York legal ethics laws generally prohibit a judge who has any family connection who stands to gain financially from the outcome.

Jury selection in the lawfare case, being waged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, could begin April 15, setting the stage for the first of Trump’s four criminal trials to begin ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

It wasn’t immediately clear Monday how Trump’s latest legal move could affect the timing of the pending criminal case, which was already delayed once after U.S. Attorney’s office revealed a trove of  previously unknown documents. That may include exculpatory information, such as previous letters written by porn star Stormy Daniels that unequivocally denied having any prior sexual relationship with Trump.

Merchan previously rejected Trump’s request for a longer delay after the last-minute document dump.

In a separate filing with the appeals court Monday, Trump was expected to seek a change of venue to move the trial outside Manhattan. That action also remained under seal.

Trump pleaded not guilty in April 2023 to 34 felony counts related to charges he paid off Daniels through a lawyer before the 2016 presidential election and covered it up as a legal expense before being elected president.

Trump faces 88 felony charges spread across four cases in Florida, Georgia, New York and Washington.

In a federal case in Florida, Trump has pleaded not guilty to 40 felony counts that allege he kept sensitive military documents, shared them with people who didn’t have security clearance and tried to get around the government’s attempts to get them back.

In Georgia, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former state Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, on charges they tried to overturn the state results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

In Washington, special counsel Jack Smith’s team of federal prosecutors charged Trump with four federal counts related to contesting the 2020 election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6, 2021.

The charges are conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction, and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted, according to the indictment. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Trump Outlines Stance on Abortion, In Vitro Fertilization: Let the States Decide

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Trump Outlines Stance on Abortion, In Vitro Fertilization: Let the States Decide

(Casey Harper, The Center Square) Former President Donald Trump laid out his stance on abortion and in vitro fertilization Monday after recent major court cases reshaped the landscape on both those issues.

In a video posted online, Trump expressed support for IVF and said abortion laws should be handled by the states.

“Under my leadership, the Republican party will always support the creation of strong, thriving and healthy American families,” Trump said.

“We want to make it easier for mothers and families to have babies, not harder,” he added. “That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.”

Trump’s support comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that embryos should be treated as children, creating major questions about the future and legality of IVF.

IVF usually works by creating embryos outside the womb and then implanting them within the womb.

Often, because of the failure rate of those implantations, those seeking IVF treatment will create many more embryos than they expect to have as children. Later, if a couple decides to stop trying to have children, the remaining embryos are either donated or destroyed, but destroying them could have been illegal under the new ruling.

In response, Alabama lawmakers passed a law in March providing criminal and civil immunity to IVF clinics that destroy or damage embryos.

“Today, I’m pleased that the Alabama legislature has acted very quickly and passed legislation that preserves the availability of IVF in Alabama,” Trump said. “The Republican party should always be on the side of the miracle of life and the side of mothers, fathers, their beautiful babies, and that’s what we are.”

Trump went on to say he has continued to receive questions about his stance on abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, something he took credit for in the video. He said whatever states decide will be the final say.

“It must be remembered that the Democrats are the radicals on this one because they support abortion up to and even beyond the ninth month,” Trump said.

“The concept of having an abortion in the later months and even execution after birth, and that’s exactly what it is, the baby is born, and the baby is executed after birth, is unacceptable and almost everyone agrees with that,” he added.

Trump’s decision not to support efforts to enact a federal abortion ban led to backlash from one of its biggest proponents, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Following criticism from Graham, Trump pushed back, suggesting that the senator and his colleagues had bigger priorities to address, like border security.

“Senator Lindsey Graham should spend more time focusing on all of the many people being killed because of our now non-existent Border, and the millions of people dying in senseless, never-ending Wars that he constantly favors and promotes,” Trump said in the searing rebuke to his off-again, on-again ally.

A congressional abortion ban would be unlikely to pass in a narrowly split House and Senate even if the issue had not proven to be a political poison pill for the GOP, helping to mobilize many suburban women to become single-issue voters at the ballot box.

Critics contend that not only would it be easy for the next Democrat majority to undo—making the debate over abortion a never-ending seesaw—but it also would be at odds with Trump’s general effort to scale down federal government overreach.

The Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health determined that the earlier Roe court, in 1974, had exceeded its authority in inventing a new constitutional right without going through Congress.

The announcement was a major strategic decision for Trump, as President Joe Biden and Democrats have repeatedly used the abortion issue to rally their base after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the nationwide abortion legalization allowed Roe and sent the issue back to the states.

“Like Ronald Reagan, I am strongly in favor of exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother,” he added.

Abortion has been a significant electoral issue for decades, but the overturning of Roe v. Wade significantly increased its importance. Under the Supreme Court’s ruling, states can decide their own abortion laws.

During his State of the Union Address, Biden made a point of this and claimed he would rally women to his side in November on this issue.

“Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women. But they found out,” Biden said in his State of the Union remarks.

“When reproductive freedom was on the ballot, we won in 2022 and 2023, and we will win again in 2024,” he added. “If you—if you, the American people, send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again.”

Mollie Hemingway, editor of The Federalist, cautioned that Trump’s newly articulated stance may play right into the trap that Democrats are hoping to ensnare Republicans in.

“Leaving abortion ‘up to the states’ means Trump is giving Democrats and abortion giants a free pass to target Republican strongholds with deliberately deceptive ballot measures that promise uninhibited abortion through all nine months of pregnancy,” she noted.

Such a ballot referendum was recently approved in Trump’s home state of Florida. That could prove key to Democrat hopes of reclaiming the “Sunshine State,” which has gone increasingly red over the past several years under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

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