Trump’s remark at a televised session with lawmakers on Wednesday that government officials should have the power to seize guns from people who might pose a danger without going to court - “Take the guns first, go through due process second,” he said - directly contradicted that view. For many rural conservatives, the belief that the 2nd Amendment provides a vital check on government power is cherished as much as the 1st Amendment is revered in more liberal parts of the country. The NRA gets its power because pro-gun attitudes have become central to the self-identity of many conservatives, especially those living in rural areas, as the non-partisan Pew Research Center showed last summer in an in-depth study of American attitudes toward guns. Welcome to the Friday edition of our Essential Politics newsletter, in which we look at the events of the week in Washington and elsewhere in national politics and highlight some particularly insightful stories. I’m David Lauter, Washington bureau chief. They did so in dramatic fashion this week on the issue of guns. But Trump’s path to the Oval Office lay through the right wing of American politics, and ever since his election, he has given top priority to keeping a very conservative support base happy.Įvery so often, the tensions between what his base wants and what Trump actually thinks come to the surface. Chuck Schumer, the liberal New Yorker who is now the Senate’s Democratic leader.
Trump, as senior Republicans know well, is a man who just a few years ago hosted a fundraiser for Sen. One of the paradoxes of Donald Trump’s tenure is that a president who is among the least ideological to have held the job presides over one of the most ideological administrations in memory.