Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is touting support from one of the most vitriolic critics of IVF in the country: Michael Knowles. 

The Daily Wire host has said that in vitro fertilization is a “crime,” “evil,” and “immoral." After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against IVF, he even suggested that IVF doctors should be the target of prosecutions if they continue their work.

The Trump campaign issued a September 4 press release announcing the formation of “Catholics for Trump,” which it called “a coalition committed to safeguarding the vital principles of religious liberty and defending family values that President Donald J. Trump has ardently championed.” 

The campaign included a pro-Trump quote from Michael Knowles, who said: “President Trump’s record in office is more closely aligned with Catholic principles than that of any other president or major party nominee in my lifetime. In 2024, he is running against the most radically anti-Catholic presidential candidate in my lifetime. This is not a difficult decision.” 

In addition to his work for The Daily Wire, Knowles is connected to Project 2025 partners: He has done speeches for Young America’s Foundation and appeared on the podcast of Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, whose organization led the conservative presidential transition project. Roberts has called Knowles “one of the most important messengers, thinkers, communicators, not just about conservatism, not just about Christianity, but about the future of America.” 

Knowles is also one of the most vitriolic critics of IVF in the media. Here is a sampling of some of the Trump-backed commentator’s remarks:

• During a Young America’s Foundation event in December 2023, Knowles called surrogacy and IVF a “crime,” a “growing evil,” “ghastly,” “absolutely horrific,” and “just about the most rotten thing a society can possibly do to children.” 
• On his program in June 2024, Knowles praised the Southern Baptist Convention for opposing IVF. He also attacked parents who use IVF, stating: “Even if IVF didn't lead to the mass killing of babies, as it does, what it does do is invert the natural order by insisting that parents, that adults have a right to a child. … You don't get to claim a right to a child.” He also said: “This is one of the great evils of the IVF industry, and you see this, especially in the surrogacy industry, which is just a branch of the IVF industry, which is that it treats children, human beings, as commodities to be bought and sold in an open market.” 
• Knowles said on his program in February 2024 that IVF is “very morally dubious.” He added: “I don't think it would be advisable for the Republican Party to come out as the party of IVF right now.”
• In February 2024, when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled against IVF, Knowles said that doctors who work on IVF are “immoral businessmen selling people.” He added that if IVF doctors in Alabama continue to work on IVF, “I hope that they're prosecuted under the law in accordance with the laws of Alabama and the Alabama Supreme Court and the -- the Alabama state constitution.” 
• In December 2023, Knowles said that “surrogacy and IVF are immoral.” 

Knowles last month also praised Trump on abortion, saying: “I don't see any evidence that Trump has moved the GOP to the left on abortion. If anything, practically speaking, he's moved it to the right.” 

On August 29, Trump disingenuously suggested that under a future Trump administration, “we're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay” for in vitro. Knowles wrote that day: “It seems ill-advised for a political campaign to mandate that so many likely voters support something they consider gravely evil.” 

Knowles has made numerous other extreme and vitriolic comments, including stating that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely,” “divorce should basically be outlawed,” and “I support Christian nationalism.”