Donald Trump has signed a pledge promising that as president, he would make enforcing existing laws against pornography, especially child pornography, a top priority of his administration.
The pledge comes from the nonpartisan group Enough is Enough, whose founder Donna Rice Hughes has long worked to convince Americans that pornography is severely harmful to individuals and society at large.
Signed by Trump on July 16, the pledge also says the president would seriously consider appointing a special commission to explore effects of pornography on Americans, aggressively enforce the Children’s Internet Protection Act, work with corporations on anti-porn initiatives and advance other public policies to protect children from pornography.
Trump’s move could win him some points with conservatives, who have struggled to accept a Republican presidential nominee who brought the first strip club to his casino in Atlantic City, is married to a woman who once posed nude for GQ and has said a host of derogatory things about females.
And on Monday morning, the New York Post published on its cover a 1995 nude photo of Trump’s wife, Melania, which had been taken for a now-defunct French men’s magazine.
“I am encouraged by Mr. Trump’s commitment to uphold the rule of law, which is demonstrated by his signing of the pledge,” Hughes told the Washington Examiner. “I am confident that if elected president, Mr. Trump will follow through on the commitments.”
Enough is Enough also sent the pledge to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, but the group says neither has signed it. The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment about the pledge.
Despite their hesitancy about Trump, social conservatives succeeded in heavily influencing the Republican platform this year, and not just on issues of abortion and gay marriage. For the first time, the platform labeled pornography a “public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions.”
The provision was introduced by Mary Frances Forrester, a longtime political activist from North Carolina and a delegate to the GOP convention. The language mirrors a similar resolution the Utah legislature passed in April, which calls for research, education and policy changes to address the pornography epidemic.
Forrester said the conservative group Concerned Women for America had asked her to introduce the anti-porn language as a member of the platform committee. Even though she was proud to get the plank included, she’s unsure whether Trump will adhere to its principles.
“I’m thinking, okay, I certainly cannot control his mouth-speak and some of his behavior in the past,” Forrester said. “[But] I do feel like he really does love the country. I’m hoping he will accept this platform.”
That’s also the hope of other conservatives, who spent much of the primary campaign season fighting hard against his campaign. Leaders of abortion-opposing groups, including Susan B. Anthony List’s Marjorie Dannenfelser, once urged supporters to oppose Trump but are now reluctantly accepting him.
Rebecca Hagelin, a conservative columnist and author on family issues and former vice president of the Heritage Foundation, wrote an op-ed in February entitled: “Meet Donald Trump: The King of Sleaze,” in which she chronicled how his Taj Mahal Casino opened the country’s first casino strip club three years ago.
“I know how awful Hillary Clinton would be for the country, but even so, I was very reluctant to say how can we put a man like Donald Trump into this most influential position in the land,” Hagelin told the Examiner.
Trump bought Atlantic City’s Taj Mahal for $273 million back in 1988, when its owner, Resorts Intentional, claimed to be near bankruptcy. Purchased by his publicly traded company, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, in 1996, it eventually became the highest grossing casino in Atlantic City.
In 2013, the Taj Mahal opened within its facility a $25 million strip club run by Scores, a U.S. chain of topless clubs. Trump no longer holds any ownership stake, after selling it to billionaire Carl Icahn when his entertainment company filed for bankruptcy two years ago.
But his investments in the adult entertainment industry are deeply troubling to conservatives, who quickly pivot to talking about his vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, when asked about the issue.
“When he named Mike Pence as his VP, that’s when I crossed over,” Hagelin said.
Concerned Women for America President Penny Nance, whose group pushed for the anti-porn language, noted her group doesn’t endorse presidential candidates but said she’s “confident Donald Trump will listen to the concerns of conservative women and parents on this issue.”
What gives her more assurance, Nance said, is Trump’s selection of Pence as running mate.
“When you look at the man he has chosen as vice-president … you can see that, for all the glamour and celebrity he is known for, Trump seems to be committed to a brand of governing that will consider policy issues seriously,” she said. “And nothing is more serious than the sexual exploitation of women and children.”
Other conservative groups are also trying to draw more attention to pornography as a negative influence. The Family Research Council will hold a forum next week entitled “Pornography: A Public Health Crisis.”
Forrester said that while there was pushback on some of the provisions she tried to add to the GOP platform, she didn’t get any resistance on the anti-porn language.
“I think perhaps presenting it as a public health crisis, rather than a moral issue, helped it,” she said.
