On guns, Donald Trump is shooting from the hip

Donald Trump has contradicted gun-rights groups and members of his own inner circle as he struggles to contain the political fallout from the fatal shooting of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti.

The president has been accused of hypocrisy and political calculation over his response to the Pretti shooting when compared to what he said about other recent fatal shootings and the carrying of guns at protests.

Trump has publicly distanced himself from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s description of Pretti as a “would-be assassin” following his death at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.

When pressed by reporters, Trump explicitly rejected Miller’s description, saying: “No, I don’t think so.”

He went on to assert that Pretti—a lawful concealed-carry permit holder whose weapon was holstered at the time of the incident—should not have been carrying a firearm at the protest. “With that being said…you can’t have guns. You can’t walk in [to a protest] with guns. You just can’t,” Trump said, later reiterating the point when challenged on Second Amendment rights. “I don’t like that he had a gun. I don’t like that he had two fully-loaded magazines. That’s a lot of bad stuff,” he said.

That stance marks a stark departure from the rhetoric Trump and his allies have recently used to defend armed civilians at protests—and it has alienated segments of his political base.

Here’s why the president is facing a backlash—and accusations of hypocrisy:

What Trump said about Kyle Rittenhouse

In 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid civil unrest and shot three men, two fatally, with an AR-15 style rifle. He had traveled to the state to defend local businesses during a Black Lives Matter protest. The first man was shot when he tried to grab Rittenhouse’s rifle, the second two when they confronted him after the first shooting. He was acquitted of all charges at trial.

Trump’s response was sympathetic. He repeatedly framed Rittenhouse’s actions as self-defense and later lauded his acquittal, saying that if the verdict wasn’t self-defense “nothing is,” and that Rittenhouse “probably would have been killed” had he not acted as he did. Rittenhouse has since been celebrated in conservative circles as a defender of property and civic order: he became a symbol of American patriotism and Second Amendment rights.

What Trump said about Mark and Patricia McCloskey

Similarly, after Mark and Patricia McCloskey pointed firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters who marched past their St. Louis home in 2020, Trump was quick to unequivocally back them. He retweeted a video of the incident, and said the McCloskeys were going to be “beat up badly, if they were lucky.”

He staunchly defended the couple, framing them as law-abiding citizens protecting their property. The episode played into Trump’s law-and-order campaign rallying cry, reinforcing his argument that armed civilians had both the right and justification to confront protesters, even with firearms.

George Floyd protests

During the nationwide protests that followed the killing of George Floyd in 2020, Trump escalated tensions with a tweet declaring that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”

The phrase has racist origins dating back to the civil rights era, and Trump’s use of it drew condemnation from civil rights groups and Democrats, who accused the president of endorsing vigilante violence. Twitter flagged the post for glorifying violence—an unusual step at the time. And Trump later tried to walk back his use of the phrase.

Second Amendment clash with NRA

The National Rifle Association, which has backed Trump three times, lashed out after a federal prosecutor in California said on X that: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”

That analysis, the NRA said, is “dangerous and wrong.”

FBI Director Kash Patel magnified the blowback, telling Fox viewers: “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines, to any sort of protest or rally in any state. You don’t have that right.”

Erich Pratt, vice president of Gun Owners of America, was incredulous, responding on CNN: “I have attended protest rallies while armed, and no one got injured.”

Conservative officials around the country made the same connection between the First and Second amendments.

“Showing up at a protest is very American. Showing up with a weapon is very American,” state Rep. Jeremy Faison, who leads the GOP caucus in Tennessee, said on X.

What the Right is saying

Many on the right have seized on Trump’s response to the Pretti shooting as evidence of an emerging hypocrisy in his stance on gun rights.

Conservative lawmakers and activists who traditionally champion the Second Amendment have pushed back against rhetoric from the administration implying that Pretti was at fault simply for carrying a firearm. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a prominent Second Amendment defender, wrote on X: “Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government.”

Trey Gowdy, a Republican former congressman and attorney for Trump during one of his first-term impeachments, told Fox News: “You remember Kyle Rittenhouse and how he was made a hero on the right…Alex Pretti’s firearm was lawfully being carried. It’s lawful to carry a gun in Minnesota.”

Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who has studied the history of the gun debate, said the fallout “shows how tribal we’ve become.”

Republicans spent years talking about the Second Amendment as a means to fight government tyranny, he said. “The moment someone who’s thought to be from the left, they abandon that principled stance.”

However, Matt Walsh, the conservative commentator argued that any comparisons between Rittenhouse and Pretti were “retarded.”

“Rittenhouse wasn’t interfering with law enforcement. He was only there because law enforcement was nowhere to be found. It’s literally the exact opposite situation,” he wrote.

Rittenhouse himself weighed in, writing on X: “The same people wanting to silence me are now begging me to comment.

“My comment: Communists are gay. And anti-2A people are gay. Biden’s failed open borders policies created this ENTIRE mess.”

What the Left is saying

Many on the Left have blasted Trump for the contradiction in his rhetoric on guns and violence. President Joe Biden said Pretti’s killing “betrays our most basic values as Americans,” adding: “We are not a nation that guns down our citizens in the street. We are not a nation that allows our citizens to be brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights.”

Isaiah Martin, a former Democratic candidate for Congress in Texas, wrote on X: “Kyle Rittenhouse showed up to a protest like this and Republicans called him a hero.”

Trump’s changing stance clearly problematic

Blaming Pretti for his own death because of his choice to carry a firearm—despite the fact that such carrying was legal under Minnesota law—has justifiably opened Trump up to accusations of hypocrisy and unsettled parts of his base.

The blowback against the administration from core Trump supporters comes as Republicans are trying to protect their threadbare majority in November’s Midterms in the U.S. House and face several competitive Senate races.

Trump’s latest comments on Pretti have exposed a broader political tension in his strategy: appeasing a law-and-order base that champions armed resistance, while trying to navigate the powder keg atmosphere that has built following the deadly shootings of two American citizens during an immigration crackdown.

The stark difference between past praise for armed individuals and present statements about gun carrying is clearly problematic.