Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., said in a 2012 interview that it's a shame conservatives have to oppose abortion and same-sex marriage in order to win primary races, adding that he wished Republicans would remove abortion from the party platform.
"Other than certain social issues, I sort of tend to air right of Atilla the Hun, honestly, for me, abortion, I don't get it. I don't even understand how it's a political issue," Trump Jr. said on the since-defunct SiriusXM show The Six Pack "I don't understand how there is one-issue voters for that. I don't understand how you can tell someone what they can or can't do. And I'm sort of the same way with that (speaking of same-sex marriage)."
Trump's son, who is actively campaigning for him in New Hampshire and recently deleted a series of old tweets supportive of same-sex marriage, said he saw social issues through the prism of a New Yorker.
"You know, I had gay friends growing up," he said. "Now, I'm from New York City, so it's a little bit different. I'm exposed to it. For me, I was with gay friends last night. It's just not, it was never a big deal for me. I mean, I think there was a time in my life probably in college that I wished every guy was gay because it just meant more women for me."
"That's a factor of exposure, being from New York," he continued. "So you know, I have no issue with it. If I have to suffer through marriage, why shouldn't they."
While in the past Trump described himself as pro-choice, in recent years he has said he is very pro-life. Trump has said he is against same-sex marriage.
Trump Jr. cautioned that he did not want to speak for his father, but suggested social issues were not as important to him as the economy.
"You know, in terms of my father's political views, I don't want to speak for him, but I think in the grand scheme, there's probably other things he would be concerned about first, given the state of the world and our economy, etc. etc. I think, part of it, again I don't want to speak for him because who the hell knows, but I think part of the shame of being a conservative is you almost have to have those kind of stances to become or to win any kind of primary and then you have to basically sell out and become a moderate in the middle just like you have to do if you are on the liberal side of the political spectrum."
"It's why I'd have no future in politics because I can't buy into the abortion argument. I wish the Republicans would drop it as part of their platform," he said, adding that many Republicans say they're against abortion but don't actually do anything to change it.