After deadly mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, President Donald Trump said he was prepared to endorse a bill providing “very meaningful background checks” that would be possible because of his “greater influence now over the Senate and over the House.” After discussions with gun rights advocates during his working vacation in Bedminster, N.J. — including CEO Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association — Trump has reverted to reiterating the conservative positions on the gun issue he has espoused since the 2016 campaign, the New York Times reports.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he was “very, very concerned with the Second Amendment, more so than most presidents would be,” and added that “people don’t realize we have very strong background checks right now.” He echoed the standard NRA response to mass shootings, saying, “this is a mental health problem.” Trump’s turnaround is the latest example of the president’s capitulating to the views of his populist white and working-class political base, and it came after NRA officials flooded the White House, Congress and governors’ offices with phone calls since the back-to-back mass shootings on Aug. 3 and 4. White House officials insisted that Trump would shift back again toward supporting more aggressive legislation when Congress returns from its August recess.