'Rolling Thunder': Christian nationalists ramp up game plan for Trump’s second term

07 May

Attendees at an evangelical megachurch in 2019 (CMP55/Shutterstock.com)

When Republicans flipped the U.S. Senate in 2024 and Donald Trump narrowly defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race, anti-abortion groups and far-right Christian nationalists were optimistic. Republicans now control the White House and both branches of Congress, and anti-abortion activists are hoping for abortion restrictions at the national level.

However, the GOP majorities in the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives are small, and House Republicans in swing districts are worried about the 2026 midterms — especially with Trump having low approval ratings in countless polls only three and one-half months into his second presidency. Abortion was a bad issue for Republicans in the 2022 midterms, and Democratic strategists are hoping it will hurt the GOP in 2026 as well.

In an article published on May 7, Politico's Alice Miranda Ollstein examines Rolling Thunder — anti-abortion activists' game plan for Trump's second presidency.

"The nation's most influential anti-abortion groups have a new plan to roll back access to the procedure for millions of Americans in what they're calling the 'biggest opportunity for the pro-life movement' since toppling Roe v. Wade," Ollstein reports. "The effort, which the groups have privately named 'Rolling Thunder,' is the movement's first concerted attempt under the second Trump Administration to target abortion pills, and aims to convince the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), Congress and courts to crack down on their use."

Ollstein adds, "While the Trump Administration paid little attention to the medication in its first months in office, and even filed a court brief to preserve access, the activists are counting on a report from the conservative think tank Ethics and Public Policy Center to light a fire under those in power."

Ollstein notes that the drug Mifepristone is "is a longtime target of conservative activists who consider it the primary driver of the increase in abortions since Roe's fall in 2022."

"The groups also hope to wield the report to pressure Congress to strip the remaining federal funding from Planned Parenthood — which they consider the country's best-known purveyor of the drugs — and give conservative legal groups fodder to prosecute doctors who prescribe the pills to patients who live in states with abortion bans," the Politico reporter explains. "Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley told Politico he plans to introduce legislation — inspired by the groups' report — that would restrict access to the pills and make it easier for patients who have taken them to sue the manufacturers, Danco and GenBioPro."

Ollstein adds, "(Hawley) is also joining the groups' pressure campaign on the FDA…. Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights supporters are slamming the report as 'junk science' as they mount their own pressure campaign to save their funding — highlighting that the paper was released directly by the conservative think tank and not published in a medical journal where it would have been vetted by outside experts in the peer review process."

Read the full Politico article at this link.

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