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{"id":24372,"date":"2026-06-16T10:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-questioned-mike-collins-about-his-hardline-abortion-stance-before-endorsing-him\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T10:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T10:17:15","slug":"trump-questioned-mike-collins-about-his-hardline-abortion-stance-before-endorsing-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/trump-questioned-mike-collins-about-his-hardline-abortion-stance-before-endorsing-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump questioned Mike Collins about his hardline abortion stance before endorsing him"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>President Donald Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/14\/trump-endorses-mike-collins-georgia-senate-00961554\" target=\"_blank\">11th-hour endorsement<\/a> of Rep. Mike Collins early Sunday morning surprised even some of the Georgia Republican\u2019s aides and advisers, who thought a tense White House meeting had all but ended his chances of securing the president\u2019s support.<\/p>\n<p>In that meeting just weeks earlier, Trump repeatedly raised Collins&#8217; hardline stance on abortion, pressing him on how he could win in a general election for Georgia\u2019s marquee Senate race, according to three people familiar with the meeting, granted anonymity to speak about the private discussions.<\/p>\n<p>The late May sit-down was dominated by the issue of abortion, the people said. Those close to Collins walked away thinking that getting Trump\u2019s endorsement was unlikely. One person close to the White House and familiar with the meeting said it was consistent with how the president typically works through key issues with potential endorsees before making a decision.<\/p>\n<p>The interaction underscores how questions over electability are top of mind for the president this cycle, especially in a critical battleground, and as abortion remains a political vulnerability for the GOP.<\/p>\n<p>Yet on Sunday, the president <a href=\"http:\/\/google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/116746683568766400&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1781583736114490&amp;usg=AOvVaw2EbL-otHDtbIENe0UvKBzJ\" target=\"_blank\">publicly backed Collins<\/a> in the early hours of his 80th birthday in a post on Truth Social, upending the GOP Senate runoff in its closing days and delivering a blow to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp\u2019s candidate of choice, former college football coach Derek Dooley.<\/p>\n<p>Collins and Trump spoke shortly before the president issued his 1 a.m. endorsement, two people familiar with the call said. The post shocked some Collins aides, who woke up to the news.<\/p>\n<p>Abortion has been a thorn in Trump\u2019s side politically in recent years. He\u2019s faced criticism from anti-abortion advocates for not doing enough to advance their agenda, while trying to avoid alienating the broader electorate on an issue that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/12\/19\/dobbs-2022-election-abortion-00074426\" target=\"_blank\">proven to be political dynamite<\/a> for Democrats in recent cycles.<\/p>\n<p>As Republicans prepare for political headwinds in November, they are trying to avoid some of the electability problems that plagued some 2022 midterm campaigns \u2014 especially in Georgia, where Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2026\/06\/15\/georgia-democratic-senators-elections-00961080\" target=\"_blank\">has since emerged<\/a> as a formidable opponent.<\/p>\n<p>During a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gpb.org\/news\/2022\/06\/06\/tensions-flare-during-10th-congressional-district-gop-runoff-debate\" target=\"_blank\">2022 debate<\/a> for his current House seat, Collins said, \u201cI have always stated and I\u2019ve always been and always will be 100 percent pro-life, period. No exceptions,\u201d a position that put him to the right of Trump on the politically potent issue of abortion.<\/p>\n<p>But Collins represents a deep-red district. Running statewide, in a major battleground state that hasn\u2019t elected a Republican to the Senate in a decade, he\u2019s shifted his position.<\/p>\n<p>Asked recently on the campaign trail about his views on abortion, Collins said he supports \u201cGeorgia\u2019s heartbeat law, which includes exceptions, 100 percent,\u201d according to a video of the remarks obtained by Blue Light News. Georgia\u2019s current abortion law bans the procedure in most cases after about six weeks \u2014 with exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.<\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s concerns about Collins\u2019 strict stance were not unfounded. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/polling-institute\/reports\/monmouthpoll_us_062822\/\" target=\"_blank\">Polling<\/a> shows large majorities of Americans oppose bans that include no exceptions for rape or incest.<\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s reluctance to get off the sidelines in Georgia&#8217;s Senate runoff loomed over the contest for months. His backing has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/05\/20\/georgia-maga-trump-gop-00929251\" target=\"_blank\">a pivotal factor in other Republican primaries<\/a> this cycle, often providing candidates with a decisive boost.<\/p>\n<p>Both Collins and Dooley spent weeks jockeying for Trump\u2019s support. The endorsement is expected to provide a late boost to Collins \u2014 though it arrived after early voting had already concluded and just days before the runoff, giving him <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/06\/03\/georgia-senate-trump-endorsement-fears-00949221\" target=\"_blank\">less time to capitalize on it.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Conversations between Collins and the White House <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/playbook\/2026\/05\/22\/pod-save-nobody-00933436\" target=\"_blank\">began the same night<\/a> that he advanced to the runoff last month, according to a person familiar with the talks, granted anonymity to discuss private details at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Collins had already lined up support from groups aligned with the president\u2019s MAGA movement. Club for Growth PAC, the powerful GOP super PAC closely allied with Trump, backed Collins early in the primary. He also touted support from Turning Point Action and close allies of the president like Rep. Brian Jack (R-Ga.), a former top adviser.<\/p>\n<p>Trump further reaffirmed his support for Collins in <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MikeCollinsGA\/status\/2066640627266170922\" target=\"_blank\">a tele-rally<\/a> late Monday afternoon from France, where he had arrived ahead of his meetings at the G7.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMike is a special guy, a special congressman, a special person, and so I&#8217;d like to have everybody go out and get out and vote for this man. We love Georgia, you know,\u201d Trump said, pivoting to swipe at Dooley for not voting in 2016 or 2020, and for making a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/4462405\/derek-dooley-trump-lost-georgia-2020\/\" target=\"_blank\">comment<\/a> in which he correctly said that Trump lost the 2020 election in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe said he didn&#8217;t think I won the election in 2020, and I won it by a lot,\u201d Trump falsely claimed.<\/p>\n<p>Dooley and Kemp, asked about the president\u2019s endorsements in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/program\/campaign-2026\/derek-dooley-georgia-gov-brian-kemp-hold-press-conference-ahead-of-gop-primary-runoff\/681013\" target=\"_blank\">Monday morning press conference<\/a>, both demurred. \u201cA vote for Mike Collins is a vote for Jon Ossoff. A vote for me is a vote for the people of Georgia,\u201d Dooley said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump\u2019s 11th-hour endorsement of Rep. Mike Collins early Sunday morning surprised even some of the Georgia Republican\u2019s aides and advisers, who thought a tense White House meeting had all but ended his chances of securing the president\u2019s support. In that meeting just weeks earlier, Trump repeatedly raised Collins&#8217; hardline stance on abortion, pressing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}