Speaking at the NRA’s annual meeting on April 28th, Donald Trump will be the first sitting president to do so since Ronald Reagan. The NRA threw aside tradition and endorsed Donald Trump well before he even had the Republican nomination secured. Given that Trump has supported banning so-called assault weapons in the past, it was highly unusual for the NRA to endorse Trump so early.
The move paid off big time for the NRA. Getting the President of the United States to come to your annual meeting is a big deal, from fundraising to prestige it’s a huge win for the NRA. For Donald Trump it’s also a win-win. He can shore up some support with some of his disgruntled his conservative/libertarian base. Support he has been slowly losing by getting involved in Syria and failing to repeal Obamacare. Normally, the media would raise a huge stink about the president helping on the NRA like this, but the left-wing media has already maxed out the outrage factor. Trump is already being portrayed as a fascist dictator who spawned from Satan himself. Visiting the NRA at it’s annual meeting isn’t going to hurt Trump politically, it’s just another story that will be lost in the noise of the anti-Trump machine.
The NRA realized that Trump was going to win the nomination long before most pundits did and they also realized that Trump would be rewarding loyalty to him. While some angry Ted Cruz fans may have canceled their memberships for understandable anger, the NRA played the long game and won. Trump has put himself in a position where violating campaign promises on guns will be much more difficult than it will be with other issues. America is now discovering the difference between presidential candidate Trump and President Trump, to the relief of gun owners President Trump likes the Second Amendment just as much as candidate Trump did. Here’s the NRA announcement.