NRA Clashes With Trump Administration Over Minneapolis Shooting
Audrey Edmonds ’28
Alex Pretti’s killing has ruptured a long-standing alliance between the Trump administration and major gun lobby groups, as the former seems to contradict traditional conservative views on gun rights and individual liberty.
Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was fatally shot by border patrol agents on January 24th. In the hours following the incident, the Trump administration issued a statement on the second killing by federal agents in Minneapolis. Later that day, the Department of Homeland Security gave their account of the encounter on X: an individual armed with a handgun had approached the federal agents with the intent to “massacre” them.
The statement appears to contradict bystander footage, in which one officer removed a gun from Pretti’s lower back moments before another officer opened fire, shooting him 10 times within 5 seconds. Pretti’s gun, which had been obtained legally, was never drawn; the object in his hand was not a handgun, but a phone.
Bill Essayli, an Assistant U.S. Attorney appointed by President Trump, posted shortly after the shooting: “If you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you. Don’t do it!”
The NRA — traditionally aligned with the Trump Administration — labeled this sentiment “dangerous and wrong.” They accused Essayli of “making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens,” and called for an investigation.
The Vice President of Gun Owners of America, another gun lobby group, expressed a similar sentiment: “People do have a right to protest—patriotically and peacefully—while exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms.”
As one of the most influential advocacy groups in the U.S., the NRA lobbies in favor of legislation that protects citizens’ right to bear arms. The clash between the Trump administration and the NRA is a notable divorce from their preexisting alliance. In 2016, the NRA became the largest outside supporter of Trump’s campaign, spending over $30 million. Once in office, Trump repaid them generously, loosening background checks on firearm ownership, easing fugitive possession of weapons, and supporting silencer deregulation.
In the years after, the NRA’s budget was drastically diminished by an onslaught of corruption allegations and internal feuds. As a result, their donations to Trump’s subsequent campaigns were less impressive: $16.6 million in 2020 and $2 million in 2024. Regardless, Trump’s loyalty to the group persisted. In February 2025, Trump gave an executive order protecting and expanding the Second Amendment. The NRA viewed this as a “clear statement from President Trump that he intends to uphold his promise to protect Constitutional freedoms.”
Yet recently, Trump seems to be less concerned with maintaining his relationship to the NRA. Following the shooting of Pretti, he told a Washington reporter, “I don't like it when somebody goes into a protest and he's got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets.”
The online discourse between gun lobby groups and the Trump administration calls into question core values of the conservative party. If these past few days have been any indication, there are conservative values that organizations such as the NRA feel compelled to uphold, even in opposition to a president to whom they used to profess loyalty. By perceptibly threatening the sovereignty of citizens, Trump’s administration may have alienated fundamental supporters. The question now is whether the loss of these alliances will prove fatal to the administration’s political agenda, or whether they will be able to persist in transforming the Republican party.