Slate, that bastion of progressive pearl-clutching, has stumbled into a rare moment of accidental truth: the growing schism between Donald Trump and hardcore gun rights advocates is real, and it’s fracturing the fragile alliance that powered his 2016 upset. Their piece gloats over Trump’s recent waffling—pushing for expanded red flag laws, bump stock bans, and even floating national concealed carry reciprocity only to backpedal under NRA fire—as evidence that the MAGA coalition is crumbling. But here’s the clever twist Slate misses entirely: they’re right about the rift, dead wrong about why it matters. Trump isn’t betraying 2A purists out of some newfound moderation; he’s playing 4D chess to peel off suburban soccer moms spooked by school shootings, all while his base cheers the judges he’s stacked the courts with. Remember, this is the guy who signed the 2018 fix for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) denial notifications, a quiet win for enforcement that gun owners applauded—until his occasional pandering tweets made them forget.
Context is king here, and the 2A community needs to zoom out. Trump’s first term delivered Heller’s full-throated affirmation through Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, cementing originalist firepower that lower courts are only now unleashing—think Rahimi’s narrow carve-out for domestic abusers versus the sweeping victories in Bruen challenges nationwide. Slate frames the schism as Trump’s gun-grab evolution, ignoring how his administration crushed ATF overreach on pistol braces and ghost guns, moves that Biden’s crew is scrambling to reverse. The real beef from purists? His 2024 campaign flirtations with assault weapon carve-outs to court Nikki Haley voters, a tactical feint that’s already forced the GOP platform to harden on reciprocity and suppressors. Implications for us? This isn’t doom; it’s a wake-up call. If Trump wins, expect executive orders turbocharging hearing protection acts and reciprocity—promises he kept last time despite the noise. But if gun owners sit out over purity tests, we hand the keys to Harris, whose DOJ is already greenlighting every anti-2A lawsuit from California to New York.
The 2A fight isn’t about one man’s tweets; it’s structural. Slate’s schadenfreude blinds them to the scoreboard: SCOTUS is 6-3 pro-rights, red states are shall-issue havens, and black market firearms laugh at bans. Trump’s imperfections? Par for the course in politics, where absolutism loses elections. Gun owners who ditch him risk empowering the real threat—Democrats plotting door-to-door confiscation disguised as safety. Stay vigilant, vote the issues, and let’s turn this schism into the forge that tempers our resolve. The Second Amendment endures because we do.
