A top NRA official said President Trump and Vice President Pence “don’t want gun control” just one day after Trump called for a “strong” gun control bill in a shocking break from his conservative base.
Trump may have angered NRA members with his call to “take the guns first [and] go through due process second” during a bipartisan meeting on Wednesday, but the NRA’s Executive Director Chris Cox was intent on correcting the narrative after an Oval Office meeting on Thursday.
Trump, who slammed Republican lawmakers for being “afraid” of the NRA, emerged from the meeting on Thursday with a satisfied tweet.
“Good (Great) meeting in the Oval Office tonight with the NRA!” he wrote.
It remains unclear where Trump stands, but Cox’s statement indicates a stark reversal from Trump’s comments the previous day.
Trump opened the bipartisan meeting on Wednesday by urging lawmakers to take action after the Parkland school shooter killed 17 people with an AR-15-style rifle.
The President called for expanding background checks, taking guns away from mentally ill people, banning bump stocks and restricting people under the age of 21 from buying guns.
Trump even went so far as to say he would consider an assault weapon ban.
But the President has repeatedly sided with the gun group, which sunk tens of millions of dollars into the 2016 presidential campaign.