A History of Trump's Flip-Flopping on Issues During the Presidential Campaign

Donald Trump's shift in tone on his proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S. is not the first time that he has made a significant change in an approach to an major issue during the campaign.

Abortion and assault rifles are two topics that he had different feelings about before the presidential campaign, but the bigger surprises have come when he announced one stance early in the presidential campaign and then reversed his stance months later.

The release of his tax returns has also been a tricky issue for Trump, as he said prior to the campaign, back in 2011, that he was considering doing so in an effort to make President Obama release his long-form birth certificate. Throughout the campaign, Trump has said that his returns are under audit and he would release them when that was complete, but semantics became a sticking point when he told The Associated Press this week that the audit may not be finished before the November election.

There have been several other notable policy shifts that have taken place -- mostly in the last few months. More specifically, three of the four flip-flops have taken place during the last week, after both of the remaining alternative candidates dropped out of the presidential race, making Trump the likely Republican nominee.

Here is a review of four of his most notable reversals.

The quickest reversal came ahead of the Wisconsin primary when Trump was asked about his stance on abortion.

He said he had changed his beliefs on the controversial issue in the years leading up to the campaign, but more recently, he made a full 180 turn in regards to comments about whether or not a woman seeking an abortion should be punished.

The question came up during a taped MSNBC town hall, when Trump was pressed repeatedly by host Chris Matthews if he thinks there should be "some form of punishment," and Trump finally says: "For the woman? ... Yeah."

The campaign first released the following statement from Trump: "This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination. Like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions, which I have outlined numerous times."

Trump later released another statement, effectively retracting the most controversial portion of the comments he had made during the MSNBC taping.

The second statement read: "If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman.

His initial comments during the town hall put him in the unenviable position of being criticized from both the right and the left.

During the fourth Republican primary debate, Donald Trump was directly asked if he plans to raise the minimum wage, and he said "I would not do it," which was met with applause.

Six months later, during an interview on ABC News' "This Week," Trump said that he is "looking at it and I haven't decided in terms of numbers. But I think that people have to get more."

"Well, sure it's a change. I'm allowed to change. You need flexibility," he said.

Trump has spent time this week adjusting his language when it comes to specifics on his tax reform plan.

The plan, which was initially released in September, had the nation's wealthiest earners having their income tax rate dropping from the current 39.6 percent to 25 percent under Trump's plan.

Discussions on the topic in several recent interviews, however, have caused some confusion.

"For the wealthy, I think, frankly, it's going to go up. And you know what, it really should go up," he said during his interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday, May 8.

Even during that interview, Trump noted that he expects his stances to change, arguing it is a negotiation tactic.

"It's not my word, of course. I put in a proposal. You know what they are? They're really proposals. People can say it's a tax plan. It's really a tax proposal," he said.

The next day, Trump defended himself on CNN's "New Day" by saying that while he may be increasing the amount that the wealthy would have to pay from what he originally proposed, it would still mark a decrease from what they currently have to pay.

"Now, if I increase it on the wealthy, they're still going to pay less than now. I'm not talking about increasing from this point. I'm talking about increasing from my tax proposal," Trump said on Monday, May 9.

Trump called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on," on Dec. 7.

Over the proceeding five months, he talked about the "Muslim ban" extensively during campaign stops and hinted at various possible exceptions -- from American citizens who are Muslim, to his wealthy Muslim friends from overseas and foreign leaders.

Trump told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday that the "temporary ban ... hasn't been called for yet. Nobody's done it. This is just a suggestion until we find out what's going on."

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