President Donald Trump and the top idiots in his administration are running a master class in how to alienate voters ahead of a critical election, so much so that they should make a movie called “How to Lose the Midterms in 10 Days.”
Having already flipped many Hispanic voters back to Democrats with his cruel and deadly immigration enforcement, and turned moderates away with the general chaos he’s inflicted on American life, Trump and his top officials are now angering the gun lobby and right-wing Second Amendment supporters by—I kid you not—threatening to take away their guns.
“[If] you bring a gun into the district, you mark my words, you're going to jail," Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Monday night on Fox News. "I don't care if you have a license in another district, and I don't care if you're a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else. You bring a gun into this district, count on going to jail and hope you get the gun back.”
Yes, the Trump administration is now threatening to do the very thing Trump and Republicans have long said Democrats want to do: take your guns.
Republicans—whose gun worship has prevented reforms to decrease horrific mass shootings—were quick to condemn Pirro's head-scratching comment.
Customers look at AR-15-style rifles at a gun store in Washington.
"Shall NOT be infringed is NOT a suggestion," Rep. Andrew Clyde, the unhinged Georgia Republican who wore an assault-rifle pin on his suit lapel after a spate of mass shootings, wrote in a post on X. "We need nationwide concealed carry reciprocity NOW. Our Second Amendment freedoms don’t disappear when we cross state lines or enter our nation’s capital city."
"This is not how this works," Rep. Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, wrote in response to Pirro's comments. "[Attorney General Pam Bondi] needs to have a quick conversation & course correction here."
"I bring a gun into the district every week,” Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida wrote in a post on X, tagging Pirro’s government-associated username. “I have a license in Florida and D.C. to carry. And I will continue to carry to protect myself and others. Come and Take it!"
"Second Amendment rights are not extinguished just because an American visits D.C. American gun owners who conceal carry are among the most law-abiding citizens in the nation. They are friends of law enforcement; they should not be targeted by law enforcement," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a post on X.
Pirro's comments so angered the GOP that she had to issue an apology and clarification on Tuesday.
"Let me be clear: I am a proud supporter of the Second Amendment," she wrote in a post on X. “Washington, D.C. law requires handguns be licensed in the District with the Metropolitan Police Department to be carried into our community. We are focused on individuals who are unlawfully carrying guns and will continue building on that momentum to keep our communities safe."
This is just the latest instance in which the Trump administration has angered "Second Amendment people," as Trump once infamously put it.
After intensive-care nurse Alex Pretti was shot to death by Trump’s newly unmasked immigration agents in Minnesota, Trump defended the officers and said Pretti’s killing was justified because Pretti was carrying a firearm in public.
"You can't have guns. You can't walk in with guns," Trump said in days after Pretti was shot to death.
Other Trump administration officials made similar comments. FBI Director Kash Patel said, “You cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want.” And Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that she didn’t “know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.”
Ultimately, with Democrats enthused to vote in the midterms and independents poised to vote for Democrats to be a check on Trump, going after guns and alienating his base is quite possibly the dumbest thing Trump could do.
If his base stays home, then what’s expected to be a bad night for Republicans in November could turn catastrophic.
It’s something gun-rights activists have been warning about in the days since Pretti was killed and Trump and his administration blamed Pretti’s legal possession of a handgun for his own death.
“I’ve spent 72 hours on the phone trying to unfuck this thing. Trump has got to correct his statements now,” a “Second Amendment advocate” told Politico, who added that their fellow gun-rights supporters are “furious” and that “they will not come out and vote. He can’t correct it three months before the election.”
In that case, keep going after the Second Amendment, guys! You’re doing great, sweeties!
