COVER FIRE

Trump Calls NRA ‘Great People’ and ‘American Patriots’

The president came to the gun group’s defense on Twitter.

President Donald Trump tweeted in defense of the National Rifle Association on Thursday morning, calling them “Great American Patriots.” “What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots,” he wrote. “They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” The NRA spent more than $30 million in 2016 to elect Trump, and one Trump aide told The Daily Beast “that’s the kind of thing he remembers.” The tweet followed a morning of posts in which Trump called for armed teachers to go “on the offensive” to make potential school shooters reconsider them as a target.