Trump takes vague, shifting stances. Many supporters fill in the blanks.

READING, Pa. - Donald Trump’s stances on the economy and guns were on Natalie Lebron’s mind as she waited in line at his rally, eager to hear about the topics that had energized her support. She also hoped he would clarify one thing to voters: “that he is not against their abortions.”

“If I’m not mistaken,” the 34-year-old added after a pause, catching herself. “Is he?”

In fact, Trump opposes a federal right to abortion. But he has shifted repeatedly on the issue, including saying he would veto a federal abortion ban. He called himself “pro-choice” decades ago, before switching to an antiabortion posture. He has referred to himself as “the most pro-life president in history” and claimed credit for undoing Roe v. Wade, which had established a constitutional right to abortion. Trump now says states should decide abortion laws and has sent mixed signals on a strict ban in his home state of Florida, eventually voicing support for it.

The conflicting positions have muddied the waters for voters such as Lebron, who believed Trump had been subject to unfair Democratic attacks on his abortion record but attributed her own support for him to other matters, including crime and the economy.

“What I like about him is I feel like he holds his ground,” she said. “I feel like we need someone strong like that.”

For years, Trump has embraced muddled positions, changed his views and promoted broad-brush slogans on a slew of topics. As he concludes his third straight run for president in a close race against Vice President Kamala Harris, many supporters have drawn their own interpretations of where he stands and what he would do for the country, interviews show. Some read between Trump’s lines about how he would govern, while others disregard parts of his past or present platform.

It is not unusual for voters to focus on some issues and ignore others when choosing a candidate to support. But Trump stands out for showing little interest in hewing to traditional ideological boundaries or standards for consistency or accuracy, leaving ample room for supporters to see in him what they want, strategists in both parties said.

Those tendencies have helped him build support among voters outside his hardest-core fan base, including people who are most concerned with a single issue, such as the economy, and are comfortable ignoring other topics or behavior. It has also made him vulnerable to criticism that he has no core principles - and made it more difficult to discern what he would actually do if elected.

“If you say everything, then people get to pick and choose which parts they believe you mean,” said Terry Sullivan, a Republican strategist.

The Trump campaign referred The Washington Post to Republican National Committee spokesperson Anna Kelly, who said Trump has amassed support “because voters remember that they were better off under his leadership” and accused Harris, his opponent, of using “walk-backs and word salads to obfuscate her true beliefs.”

With less than a week left until Election Day, the question of what Trump would do in a second term as president is a central focus in the race. His opponents have also gone after areas in which Trump has been clearer or more consistent, including his repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and his glorification of those charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

At the same time, Trump’s vague framing of proposals has been on display throughout the campaign. He asserted it would be “very, very simple” to close the U.S.-Mexico border under the “extreme power” he said he would have as president. He has “concepts of a plan” on health care, he said at a September debate with Harris. His signature slogan is the open-ended “Make America Great Again.”

This month in Nevada, attendees at two Trump events in Reno and Las Vegas presented different views of what, exactly, his vow to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion” would mean. A Hispanic woman said she was primarily worried about Muslim immigrants. A Black man said people from the Caribbean should be allowed to enter but not Latinos. An Asian American woman said those who entered legally, like her family, were entitled to be here, but supported closing the border to anyone else.

“I don’t think anybody doesn’t want immigrants. It’s just they need to come over the right way,” said a fourth voter in Reno, 49-year-old Stacey Dinan, who said she wasn’t opposed to immigration if people “come over legally and work hard.”

All of them said they planned to vote for Trump, with each finding something they liked in Trump’s border pledge. None talked about exactly how Trump will carry out his policy goals, which include using U.S. troops at the border and carrying out mass deportations - moves that would probably face major legal and logistic hurdles.

[Harris says Trump’s comments on women ‘are offensive to everybody’]

Similarly, voters have offered varying takes on Trump’s plan to impose tariffs at very high rates on American trade partners - a proposal economists say would probably raise prices and harm the stock market. At a recent rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, supporters cheered at the mention of tariffs, but several acknowledged later they weren’t sure what tariffs were or how they would want Trump to implement them.

Others disregard the former president’s exact rhetoric. Trump’s comments may not reflect his position once in office, former Illinois Republican National Committee member Richard Porter said after an Oct. 15 gathering of the Economic Club of Chicago during which Trump suggested he might impose “a 100, 200, 2,000 percent tariff.”

“Every time he’s talking to you, he’s negotiating,” Porter said. “That’s the most obvious thing in the world about Trump.”

On some issues, such as coronavirus vaccines (as president, he accelerated their development, but as a candidate he backed away from the accomplishment), a TikTok ban (he tried to ban the app as president, but this year lobbied against a ban) or state and local tax deductions (he signed into law a bill that capped them but last month reversed himself), his shifting stances give voters on both sides a way to justify their support for him.

The dynamic is one of the biggest challenges in countering Trump, Republican strategists said, suggesting many Trump supporters put more stock in their perception that he is authentic and strong than in whether he has detailed policy blueprints.

Democratic strategists said it is a familiar tactic that they believe can be countered by using Trump’s words against him.

“I love what the vice president has done at her rallies when she shows the clips of him speaking, where she is showing those flip-flops,” said A’shanti Gholar, a Democratic strategist and president of the organization Emerge, which recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office. “What she is really saying is he only really cares about himself, and those shifting policy stances are a reflection of that.”

Still, Gholar acknowledged, it can be difficult for Democrats to combat Trump’s style. “His policy talk, at the end of the day, it is so very rambling and disoriented, it leaves voters to hear what they want to hear,” Gholar said.

Adelina Perez, a Nevada teacher who believes Trump is the candidate more likely to lower gas prices and prevent terrorist attacks, is among voters who say they set aside some of what Trump says but trust in the spirit of his plans.

“He can say whatever he wants,” said Perez, 54. “That doesn’t bother me.”

- - -

Meryl Kornfield and Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.