The George R. Brown Convention Center’s general assembly theater hall seats about 3,600, one of the smaller venues for the portion of the NRA convention that features speeches from lawmakers and NRA officials in recent years. In 2019, President Trump’s speech was at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis; in 2018, President Trump’s speech was at the arena of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, which seats nearly 10,000 people.
And yet yesterday there were some empty seats for Trump’s address – perhaps it is a sign that attendees have already seen Trump speeches and don’t feel as much of a need to see him in person, or perhaps a sign that the long lines at the magnetometers made some people choose to browse the 14 acres of guns on display instead.
The former president’s speech was classic Trump, veering from topic to topic and changing tone quickly. Trump began by declaring, “unlike some, I didn’t disappoint you by not showing up,” a jab at Texas lawmakers like senator John Cornyn, congressman Dan Crenshaw, and lieutenant governor Dan Patrick. (Cornyn is in Washington, Crenshaw is still in Ukraine, and Patrick said he would not attend in order to “focus on the families” affected by the Uvalde school shooting. Governor Greg Abbott sent a pre-taped video message, and was in Uvalde Friday.)
Trump was appropriately somber while discussing the “heinous massacre,” “a savage and barbaric atrocity that shocks the conscience of every American,” and read off the names of the victims during a period of silence. A good portion of his speech focused on gun issues, laying out his preferred policies out in the signature Trumpian stream-of-consciousness style.
“Surely, we can all agree our schools should not be the softest target, our schools should be the single hardest target in our country,” Trump said. “And that’s why, as part of a comprehensive school safety plan, it is time to finally allow highly trained teachers to safely and discreetly concealed carry. Let them conceal carry. And again, they have to be able to handle it, they have to be highly trained, all of those things, but let them do that. It would be so much better, and so much more effective, even from a cost standpoint. Because there is no sign more inviting to a mass killer than a sign that declares a ‘gun free zone.’ Most dangerous place. I know it sounds good, and it really does. Doesn’t it sound wonderful? But it’s not. And statistically, it’s a total disaster. Gun-free zone, they look at that sign, and they say, ‘that’s where I’m going.’ We cannot have that, because if somebody goes into that building, all of those innocent people will be taken out, will be killed, will be tortured. Bad things will happen. Have to get rid of it.”
Trump also offered a full-throated tribute to the nation’s police forces, a message that felt at least a little off-key in the immediate aftermath of that morning’s shocking accounts of police inaction during the Uvalde school massacre.
But as his nearly hour-long remarks continued, the former president veered back to some of his favorite non-gun topics – border security, the Space Force, the Iran nuclear deal, and a brief reference to the “rigged election.” Trump veered into foreign policy, giving his interpretation of recent Eastern European history: “Georgia was given up by Bush, Crimea was given up by Obama and Biden, nothing was given up by Trump, and then all of Ukraine was given up by Biden.”
In 2015 and 2016, as Trump presidential campaign roared to GOP frontrunner status, the billionaire’s unique controversy-courting pugnacious style was bracing, shocking, and for many NRA members and Republicans, thrilling and exciting. Nearly seven years later, it is a different world – and Trump is offering more of the same, including the same old increasingly stale jokes about the media: “Face the Nation should be called Deface the Nation,” “MSDNC,” a reference to sleepy-eyed Chuck Todd. (It is likely that Donald Trump worries a lot more about what is said about him on Face the Nation, MSNBC, and by Chuck Todd a lot more than his audience does.)
Make no mistake, the audience in Houston warmly welcomed Trump, and if they had to vote for president today, almost all of the attendees would likely vote for him again – in almost every case, for a third time. And yet, some of the thrill is gone. What was new and exciting when the NRA endorsed Trump at its 2016 convention in Louisville is now very familiar, less a promise of unlimited victories to come and now a more complicated combination of accomplishments and disappointments, wrapped up in the same old grievances that the country has heard about, day after day, for the past six or seven years. The man who was once the most unpredictable force in American politics is starting to feel predictable.