What You Need to Know About Trump and the NRA Ahead of His Keynote Speech at the Great American Outdoor Show

Tonight, Donald Trump will be the keynote speaker for the NRA Presidential Forum as part of the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Trump has been a close ally of the NRA since his 2016 election, during which the NRA was the largest outside spender on behalf of Trump.  

Trump’s speech to the NRA coincides with the Attorney General of The State of New York v. NRA trial, which centers on allegations by New York Attorney General Letitia James that NRA leaders, including now-former CEO Wayne LaPierre, improperly diverted millions of dollars from the non-profit to benefit NRA executives. As The Washington Post recently reported, “as the former president stages his political comeback, the NRA has tumbled from power. Internal feuds, corruption allegations and an onslaught of litigation have ravaged the group’s finances and public image.”

“Donald Trump and the NRA are like two peas in a pod: flagrantly corrupt, politically toxic, and married to a ‘guns everywhere’ agenda that will make Americans less safe,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “With Trump recently telling Americans to ‘get over’ school shootings, we know what a second term would be like: The NRA would once again treat the White House like its clubhouse, and the bipartisan, life-saving progress we’ve made on gun safety will be in grave danger.”

Here’s what you need to know about Trump and the NRA:

• The NRA was the largest outside spender in President Trump’s 2016 election, spending more than $30 million to benefit his campaign.
  
  • By 2020, amid financial woes and declining influence, NRA spending for Trump was cut nearly in half, dropping to $16.6 million in support of the president’s failed re-election campaign.
  • Current and former NRA officials have recently acknowledged that the NRA won’t have the same financial resources for the 2024 election and may decide to focus on races other than the Presidential.
  • As The Washington Post reported last weekend, “Since 2016, NRA revenue fell more than 40 percent, while membership dues were down roughly 50 percent, according to tax filings through the end of 2022. Between 2018 and 2022, tax filings show the NRA spent more than $181 million on legal expenses — more than three times the amount it spent on federal candidates over the past three election cycles, according to spending tracked by OpenSecrets.”

• Trump pledged to take action on gun safety after the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings, but after then-NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre reportedly told Trump to “stop the games,” Trump walked away from his commitment.

• The NRA had a direct line to then-President Trump and his administration –– making us all less safe. Specifically, Trump pledged action on gun safety after the Parkland shooting in 2018 and the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings in 2019, then broke those promises after a reported “late-night Oval Office meeting with NRA officials” and a call from NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.

• Emails obtained by The Guardian in 2020 showed that the Trump administration consistently allowed the NRA “to shape policy outcomes and personnel decisions” at the Department of Interior.
  • In 2021, Huffington Post reported that the Department’s Office of Inspector General had found that a former NRA lobbyist employed by the department had “repeatedly violated ethics rules by communicating with and directly participating in matters that involved his longtime former employer.”

• At the NRA’s annual convention last year, Trump again promised to be the NRA’s “loyal friend” and said that mass shootings are not “a gun problem” — despite research proving his statement wrong.

To speak with an Everytown expert, please contact [email protected].