Then and now: 5 ways Trump has changed his views on key issues

Donald Trump may be leading the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, but his record suggests that little of his support stems from a long history of harboring bedrock conservative principles.

A look at Trump’s stances shows him changing from left- to right-leaning — as does his voting registration.

Here are some of topics on which Trump has changed his tune:

Abortion

Then: “I’m very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I hear people debating the subject. But I just believe in choice.” — Meet the Press, Oct. 24, 1999. He said in the interview that he was pro-choice “in every respect” and would not ban partial-birth abortions.

More recently: “I’m pro-life, but I changed my view a number of years ago,” he said, citing a friend’s decision to keep an unwanted child. “It’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to him. And you know, here’s a baby that wasn’t going to be let into life. And I heard this, and some other stories, and I am pro-life.” — Christian Broadcasting Network, April 2011

Now: “I’m pro-life and I have been pro-life.” He said he believes in exceptions for rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. — Interview with Bloomberg, Jan. 24, 2015

Immigration

Then: “For people that have been here for years, that have been hard workers, have good jobs, they’re supporting their family — it’s very, very tough to just say, ‘By the way, 22 years, you have to leave. Get out.’ I’m one of the world’s very conservative people, but I have to tell you on a human basis, how do you throw somebody out that’s lived in this country for 20 years?” — Fox News, June 18, 2012

Then: He called 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s call for immigrants to voluntarily return home a “crazy policy of self-deportation which was maniacal. It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote. He lost the Asian vote. He lost everybody who is inspired to come into this country.” He added that Democrats “didn’t have a policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, but what they did have going for them is they weren’t mean-spirited about it. They didn’t know what the policy was, but what they were is they were kind.” — Interview with Newsmax’s Ronald Kessler, after Romney’s 2012 loss to President Barack Obama

Now: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” — Trump presidential announcement, June 16, 2015, in New York

Now: Calls for tripling the number of immigration agents, deporting those here illegally, ending birthright citizenship and making Mexico pay for a wall along the border. — Trump immigration policy

Now: “They have to go. We either have a country, or we don’t have a country.” — Meet the Press, Aug. 16, 2015

Gun control

Then: “Democrats want to confiscate all guns, which is a dumb idea because only the law-abiding citizens would turn in their guns and the bad guys would be the only ones left armed. The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions. I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun. With today’s Internet technology, we should be able to tell within 72 hours if a potential gun owner has a record.” — Trump, The America We Deserve, 2000

Now: “The problem is once you get into that, you start getting into a situation, the slippery slope, where all of a sudden you are going to violate the Second Amendment. I don’t want to do anything to violate the Second Amendment. To me the Second Amendment is very important.” — NBC News, July 18, 2015

Single-payer healthcare

Then: “If you can’t take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it’s all over. I mean, it’s no good. So I’m very liberal when it comes to healthcare. I believe in universal healthcare. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better.” — Larry King Live, Oct. 8, 1999

Now: Trump says a single-payer system works in Canada and Scotland and “could have worked in a different age, which is the age you’re talking about here.” He called for a private system but said: “We have to take care of the people that can’t take care of themselves. And I will do that through a different system.”

Voter registration

Sources: The Smoking Gun, citing New York City Board of Elections records

July 1987: Trump registers for the first time in Manhattan, as a Republican.

October 1999: Trump registers as a member of the Independence Party.

August 2001: Trump registers as a Democrat.

September 2009: After eight years as a Democrat, Trump returns to the Republican Party.

December 2011: Trump checks off the box marked “I do not wish to enroll in a party.”

April 2012: Trump registers as a Republican

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Asked about conservative skepticism over some of his stands, Trump, in a recent Fox News interview, invoked Ronald Reagan, a onetime Democrat turned conservative icon.

“He was a Democrat with a liberal bent, and he became a great conservative, in my opinion,” Trump said. “He had something very special. But if you think of it, he was a little bit less conservative, actually, than people think. He had a great heart. And I have a great heart.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2015 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Then and now: 5 ways Trump has changed his views on key issues."