January 28, 2026 09:19 AM UTC

White House Narrative Implodes as Trump Rails Against Second Amendment

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• by: Colorado Pols

There are numerous stories this week about how the Trump administration has completely bolloxed its narrative on immigration enforcement in the wake of Saturday’s ICE killing of protestor Alex Pretti. From a strategic political perspective, no shift may be more notable than arguments about gun possession that have Second Amendment enthusiasts — normally a reliable base for Republicans — justifiably freaking out.

As CNN explains:

The Trump administration didn’t have a whole lot to work with after a federal officer shot and killed someone again this weekend in Minneapolis.

About the best defense it could muster was pointing out that Alex Pretti had a gun — even though he was legally carrying it, even though there’s no sign he brandished it, and even though video showed he was disarmed before he was killed.

Perhaps predictably, that didn’t go well.

It turns out the party’s base full of Second Amendment supporters didn’t like the idea that merely being armed might give the government more of a right to kill you. You can understand how people who view guns as a bulwark against government tyranny might see that as a potentially troublesome standard.

So when a bunch of Trump administration officials raised this talking point, gun-rights groups pushed back.

Before leaving the White House for Iowa, where he later delivered another confounding explanation about the ICE raids in Minnesota, Trump was asked about adviser Stephen Miller’s nonsense claim from Saturday that Pretti was a “would-be assassin.” Trump said he disagreed with Miller’s statement (which Miller has since walked back), and then added this:

TRUMP: “With that being said, you can’t have guns. You can’t walk in with guns, you just can’t. “

Trump was asked a follow-up question about how those remarks squared with the Second Amendment, and the President doubled-down:

TRUMP: “You can’t walk in with guns. You can’t do that.”

Later on Tuesday during his speech in Iowa, Trump kept going:

TRUMP: “Certainly, he shouldn’t have been carrying a gun…

“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.”

Trump’s statements follow those of other administration officials. Bill Essayli, a US attorney in California, said this on Saturday:

“If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.”

FBI Director Kash Patel reiterated this message in an appearance on Fox News on Sunday:

“You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want. It’s that simple.”

Gun rights groups have spoken out forcefully in response, including a familiar name from Colorado. As CNN continues:

Dudley Brown, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights, told CNN that Trump’s comments were “clearly mistaken” and “wrong.” He argued it can actually be a “moral duty” to be armed at a protest.

“I reached out to a great number of people in the administration at a very high level. And I only sent them three letters: W.T.F.,” Brown said of the administration officials’ comments in recent days.

Erich Pratt of “Gun Owners of America” also objected:

“You absolutely may walk around with guns, and you absolutely may peacefully protest while armed. We have the First and Second amendments to protect the right to protest while armed — an American historical tradition that dates back to the Boston Tea Party.”

All of this blowback has led to an unusual development this weekend:

Can’t say we had this on our bingo card for Colorado in the year of our lord 2026 but here we are.

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— The Get More Smarter Podcast 🧠 (@getmoresmarter.com) January 27, 2026 at 2:49 PM

This bears repeating: Gun-rights groups are now protesting ICE in beet-red Douglas County, something that would have been unthinkable if not for the Trump administration’s inexplicable narrative pivot against firearms as they struggle to justify the killing of a former ICU nurse (Pretti).

Perhaps the Trump administration is actually thinking about pushing back against this country’s bizarre obsession with carrying guns everywhere. More likely, the administration is simply eroding decades of support from gun-rights groups with its latest messaging blunder. Either result is welcome news.

Fascism is hard. Thank God for that.