Donald Trump vs. Donald Trump: The Difference a Decade Makes

Donald Trump has been turning heads over the past week for declaring, seemingly out of the blue, that he’s now pro-life after years of supporting abortion rights. In a coincidental stroke of good luck, this philosophical change of heart took place just in time for him to explore (or at least pretend to explore) a run for the Republican Party presidential nomination. But abortion isn’t the only issue on which Trump has lurched rightward over the years. See what else has changed between 1999, when Trump spent months looking into a run for president as a third-party candidate, and now.

	Donald Trump, 1999	Donald Trump, 2011
Party ID	In October of 1999, switched from the Republican Party to the Independence Party to run for president. (Switched again to the Democratic Party in 2001.)	Republican Party, since September 2009.
Abortion	"I'm totally pro-choice," he told Fox News on October 31, 1999. "I want to see the abortion issue removed from politics," he told reporters on December 1, 1999, adding, "I believe it is a personal decision that should be left to the women and their doctors."	"I'm pro-life," he proclaimed in his CPAC speech on February 10. “I’m pro-life. I think that's a big social issue," he told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on Monday.
Health-Care Reform	"I'm very liberal when it comes to health care. I believe in universal health care. I believe in whatever it takes to make people well and better," Trump told Larry King on October 7, 1999. In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump wrote that America should "find an equivalent of the single-payer plan that is affordable, well-administered, and provides freedom of choice."	"I do not think it's Constitutional," Trump said last week of 2010's health-care reform legislation. Asked if it should be repealed, Trump said, "I do."
Gay Marriage	"It's something I haven't given lots of thought to," Trump said on Meet the Press on October 24, 1999. "I live in New York City. There's a tremendous movement on to have and allow gay marriage. It's just something that is too premature for me to comment on."	"I’m just not in favor of gay marriage," he told Van Susteren.
Seriousness With Which He Is Considering a Presidential Run	"I'm totally serious," he told ABC's Diane Sawyer on December 1, 1999. "I'm serious."	"I'm totally being serious because I can't stand what's happening to the country," he told Fox News in October. "First time I am being serious about it."
Favorability Rating	33 percent	29 percent