President Trump has privately directed White House aides to look into what he might be able to do via executive action on guns in Congress is not able to reach a bipartisan solution, the New York Times reported.
According to the Times, in the call, Trump was testing whether the NRA’s “clout in blocking gun legislation is ebbing.”
That’s according to Maggie Haberman.
She may be right but … caveat lector.
Puh leeze. If he backs down in the face of a nasty look, just imagine how quick he’ll fold when they point gun (owners) at him.
I’ve seen this movie before.
I’ll continue to believe nothing until something concrete happens.
The rest is just, well, a lot of this …
There is one rule with Trump. He will do what’s good for Trump (or what he believes is good for Trump). He is not loyal to the NRA or anyone other than Trump.
The thing is, if there was an Reagan-like assassination attempt on Cheatolini, you can absolutely, positively, 150% count on there being an executive order the very next day banning all kinds of stuff, Wayne LaPierre and the NRA be damned.
But the Secret Service does its job (generally pretty) well, so…we get to put up with the dithering until someone with a backbone gets into the White House.
I think it more likely that he told aides to look into whether it would help or hurt him politically to do anything at all about gun control. It’s all that matters (certainly matters more than saving lives).
He’s not going to do anything.
By all means, Donnie, we wouldn’t want a few dozen, or a few hundred, dead bodies to influence your political calculations.
Actually, since EVERYTHING TRUMP DOES is “Transactional” he is just checking to see if the NRA can AFFORD to still “Pay to Play” with his re-election campaign.
If they can’t pony-up the $30 million (or more) they did in 2016, they won’t get any sugar from him this time around and he will not help them out. If they can produce the money, he will make sure no legislation even gets a vote via his lackey Moscow Mitch.
Which is almost impossible to believe that it hasn’t happened 2 or 3 times by now.
not successfully yet anyway
NUTSHELL!
If the Secret Service successfully protected Obama for 8 years, guarding Aged Orange for 4 shouldn’t be too challenging.
He can’t afford to alienate that 2nd amendment fetishists in his coalition, and he lacks the courage and morality that it takes to buck them.
Exactly. He’d cross the NRA if it helped him, but knows he can’t offend all of his fearful, aggrieved supporters who fetishize their weapons.
EDIT: guysmiley, we’re thinking along the same lines.
SPOILER ALERT
trump won’t do shit.
Republicans have already hypnotized their supporters into believing guns don’t kill people, people kill people, anyone that uses guns to kill are just mentally unfit, if you restrict guns then you may as well restrict knives too, if guns are restricted only the bad guys will have them, restrictive gun laws won’t help because people will still kill so what’s the point, video games and not praying enough are the real problems, and the holy grail of all holy grails; THE SECOND AMENDMENT, it’s the right of every single American, cold dead fingers, blah blah blah
If trump does anything that even hints at what liberals would want, his supporters will turn on him like bananas in a paper bag. And if it’s one thing I learned from this shitty presidency is that trump has no true convictions and feeds off his supporter’s adoration because he needs constant approval.
By all means, Donald, make your private inquiries into whether a lobbying group will allow you to take steps to help keep people from being mowed down in their schools, while shopping, while on a night out. See if that’s safe and politically profitable to do. We’ll wait. God forbid you rush into something like universal background checks just because the vast majority of people want it and it’s something any sane society would have done long ago.
Fucking coward.
I’m entirely in favour of the NRA using whatever resources it still has left next year to tear into Trump for not being gun-orthodox.
I’m fairly sure that there are more parents in this country that send their children off to school than there are members of the NRA.
Maybe the Dotard can buy back the suburban vote by promising bullet-proof backpacks for every child in America.
Again, two observations:
First, the real key isn’t whether the NRA can still block sensible gun laws. It’s whether there will be a Rep or Senator who does the NRA’s bidding and loses an election. People who win elections are understandably wary of well-funded, motivated interest groups. But they are flat-out afraid to lose an election. When some NRA favorite loses, that’s when things will change – much more than when anybody targeted by the NRA is defeated. Make 'em toxic.
Second, President Trump has more control over his Republican followers in Congress than any President has ever had over their party. He has proven that he can generate enough primary voters to drive any Republican incumbent into retirement. Donald Trump and ONLY Donald Trump determines what is politically viable for Republicans.
So whenever the President says anything about gun reform, Ds should simply repeat how historically unprecedented his control over Republicans really is, and conclude:
Put. Up. Or. Shut. Up.
Taunt him. Make it a test of his political manhood.