Donald Trump has said many shocking things in his time, but perhaps none that should have been as shocking to a key element of his political base than his abortion comments on “Meet the Press” last weekend.

Asked by moderator Kristen Welker if he’d sign a 15-week abortion ban at the federal level, he remained steadfastly non-committal. Trump insisted instead that he “would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.”

To the extent this promise means anything, it’d necessarily entail a settlement deeply unsatisfying to social conservatives; they are disunited and on their back foot on the issue while Democrats are almost uniformly in favor of the “Women’s Health Protection Act” that would establish a sweeping right to abortion at the national level.

Also, notably, Trump portrayed himself as a neutral arbiter, rather than an advocate and leader for social conservatives.

Well, there’s always the argument that abortion policy should be decided at the state level, right? Trump didn’t leave himself this out since he denounced, in the harshest terms, the six-week ban that Ron DeSantis signed in Florida.

“I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” he said of the legislation that’s been a long-held policy ambition of his own party. Trump’s condemnation naturally extends as well to Ohio, Georgia and Iowa, which have similar laws, if not governors with the temerity to be running against him for the Republican presidential nomination.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida that Donald Trump denounced in the harshest terms.