Trump has ‘lost faith’ in the NRA, says gun group official
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US President-elect Donald Trump delivering remarks at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas on May 18.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
WASHINGTON - President-elect Donald Trump has “lost faith” in the National Rifle Association (NRA), according to a top official at the gun organisation, who argued in a recent letter to fellow board members that the NRA needed to regroup so that it could help protect the Republican Party’s new edge in Congress in the 2026 mid-term elections.
Mr Bill Bachenberg, the group’s first vice-president and a staunch Trump ally, also told fellow board members that during the 2024 election, Trump was upset that the NRA had not committed to doing more to help him win. And Mr Bachenberg wrote that during the group’s annual conference in May, Trump expressed incredulity that the NRA was paying tens of millions of dollars a year to a lawyer, Mr William A. Brewer III, whose political donations have favoured Democrats over the years.
“I can say for a fact that President Trump and his most inner circle have lost faith in the NRA,” Mr Bachenberg wrote last week in his letter, which was co-signed by Mr Mark Vaughan, the NRA board’s second vice-president. “I communicate with them often. We have a tremendous amount of work to rebuild trust with them, just like our members and donors.”
Asked for comment, Ms Karoline Leavitt, a Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman, responded only broadly, saying in a statement that “President Trump believes that every American has a God-given right to protect themselves and their family, and he will defend law-abiding gun owners”.
The letter is the latest evidence of the NRA’s diminished political status. Once among the most influential lobbying forces in Washington, it has been reeling after years of scandal and corruption allegations. New tax filings show that the group’s annual deficit widened to about US$33 million (S$44 million) in 2023.
Mr Doug Hamlin, the NRA’s new chief executive officer, said in a statement that because the group had spent heavily to defend itself against a civil case brought by New York’s attorney-general, it had “to take a targeted approach in the 2024 election cycle”.
“Looking forward, 2025 represents the first time in years the NRA can focus on rebuilding,” he added. NYTIMES
