During the nine tumultuous years that Donald Trump has sought, contemplated seeking, or actually occupied the office of president, his adversaries have ominously and incessantly warned his followers that they are making a deal with the devil. Trump may promise that he will implement this or that policy, but, his opponents allege, he is too transactional, too mercurial, and too self-centered to be counted on. In their eagerness to be associated with Trump, his supporters will inevitably compromise their principles — or so the thinking goes.

To be sure, this sort of argument against Trump is not altogether without merit. After once presenting himself as a relatively vocal supporter of the pro-life movement, and seeming to confirm the sincerity of that support by nominating Supreme Court justices who ushered in the glorious collapse of Roe v. Wade, Trump has more recently adopted a dithering, wavering, hemming-and-hawing tone on abortion and offered genuine compromises on abortion policy. For example, in expressing his satisfaction with life issues being settled by the states, Trump is implicitly but undeniably washing his hands to the pro-life agenda — as though abortions sanctioned at the state level are somehow less of a moral outrage than those permitted by the Supreme Court.