Trump Angers NRA With Plot to Ban Trans People From Owning Guns

Gun rights groups are, well, up in arms over reports that the Trump administration is considering banning transgender Americans from possessing firearms.

As conservatives use the deadly mass shooting in Minneapolis last week to vilify the transgender community—the shooter was transgender—CNN and The New York Post reported Thursday that Donald Trump’s Justice Department is in preliminary talks about implementing a gun ban for transgender people.

While Republican presidents are typically the darlings of Second Amendment advocates, this idea was denounced swiftly and roundly by every major gun rights organization.

The National Rifle Association condemned “any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.”

Gun Owners of America said the organization “opposes any & all gun bans. Full stop.” In another post, GOA deplored the addition of “any new category of persons to the unconstitutionally broad ‘mental defective’ category,” which would “not only block them from purchasing firearms but could result in door-to-door gun confiscation from that new category of individuals.”

On X, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights wrote, “As history proves, any new rules the government invents today will be abused against ill-favored communities, including conservatives and law-abiding gun owners, tomorrow.” The proposal is “just insanity,” an NAGR spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms issued a statement saying, “We needn’t make scapegoats of others who had nothing to do with that outrage, just to create the impression something is being done.”

The Firearms Policy Coalition warned: “If the Trump Administration—or any administration—unwisely and immorally chooses to wield the force of government in conflict with the Constitution, federal law, or our values, FPC will take aggressive action to defend the rights of peaceable people, just as we have many times before.”

Kostas Moros, director of legal research and education at the Second Amendment Foundation, called the idea “blatantly unconstitutional” and lacking “any legal basis.” Considering the outpouring of criticism from gun groups, Moros wrote on X: “To the extent [the proposed ban] was a trial balloon, we all hit it like a clay pigeon.”

The Department of Homeland Security has already started bragging about its agency’s biggest single-site enforcement operation at a Hyundai plant in Georgia—but one close U.S. ally isn’t happy at all.

Most of the nearly 500 people arrested in a massive raid at a Hyundai plant Thursday were South Korean citizens, said Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Steve Schrank, who oversaw the operation. The New York Times reported that the detainees included employees and executives at two South Korean companies, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solutions, a battery manufacturer.

Now South Korea seems seriously pissed.

In a statement Friday, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned that the “economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during U.S. law enforcement operations.”

The Foreign Ministry added that it would dispatch diplomats to respond to the raid and that it had urged the U.S. Embassy in Seoul “to exercise extreme caution” in regard to the rights of Korean citizens.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong confirmed Friday that a “large” number of the individuals detained were South Korean, but did not provide an exact figure.

Schrank, the officer who oversaw the operation, declared that the raid “in fact was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of homeland security investigations.”

While Schrank claimed the workers arrested were either undocumented or working illegally, he said that some lawful U.S. citizens and permanent residents had been detained and released.

Trump met with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung late last month, in a conversation that spanned several geopolitical topics—and also included the topic of forced prostitution.

President Trump is sending 10 F-35 stealth fighter jets to Puerto Rico to use against what he claims to be state-sponsored drug cartels in the Caribbean. This comes just days after the administration bombed what it claimed was a Venezuelan “drug boat” with 11 Tren de Aragua “narco-traffickers.” 

The fighter jets will arrive in Puerto Rico next week, according to sources who spoke with Reuters, and will be part of Trump’s new military campaign in the region.

Trump has claimed that Venezuela is offering direct support to drug traffickers working in and around the United States. The country has also been central to his immigration crackdown.

“We have to protect our country and we’re going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor. They’ve been sending millions of people into the country. Many of them are Tren de Aragua, some of the worst people anywhere in the world,” Trump said shortly after the boat attack on Tuesday.   

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed Trump’s comments, claiming that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “is acting as the kingpin of a narco state.… He’s involved in the kind of drug running that has affected the American people directly.” 

Maduro has denied this frequently, instead focusing on the fact that the U.S. is bombing his citizens and accusing him of sponsoring drug traffickers, all while it increases military pressure against him. 

“They are seeking a regime change through military threat,” Maduro told journalists plainly on Monday. 

Eighty percent of illegal maritime drug flow comes from the Pacific Ocean, not the Atlantic, where Trump has sent bombs and fighter jets. The administration is seeking to use excuses like the “immediate threat” posed by Venezuela in order to further broaden Trump’s use of the military in situations where he has no legal authority to use it. Just look to his threats to Mexico, his military crackdowns in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and his threats against countless other American cities for further confirmation.  

President Donald Trump has reportedly set his sights on yet another museum: the 9/11 Memorial.

According to two White House officials, the president is exploring ways that the federal government could take control of the museum, though it’s unclear exactly how it would gain power over the site, The New York Times reported.

His campaign promises may provide a clue: Last year, Trump pledged that he would designate the site a national monument.

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum would be the administration’s latest acquisition in its quest to control America’s cultural institutions. Trump is currently pressuring the Smithsonian to eliminate exhibits that represent “improper ideology.” The president is also on a mission to restore and replace Confederate statues.

In this case, it seems that Trump’s interest in the site could stem from complaints made by 9/11 victims’ families about the memorial. For years, some have complained about high ticket prices and the large salaries earned by museum leadership. The tickets are $36 for adult admission, with veterans and the families of victims receiving free entry.

As the 9/11 memorial’s current leadership pointed out, taking over the museum would be a bad financial move for a government hypothetically focused on cost efficiency. “At a time when the federal government is working to cut costs, assuming the full operating expenses for the site makes no sense,” Beth Hillman, the president and chief executive of the memorial, said in a statement to the Times.

And as far as Marc La Vorgna, another spokesperson for the museum, knows, there’s no legal way for Trump to mount his takeover.

“We are certain that there is nothing in existing law that would give the federal government the unilateral ability to take the site over,” he said in a statement.

This week, the police department in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, unveiled an optional patch displaying the name of the department in both English and Arabic. A meltdown ensued among right-wingers on social media.

Amid the backlash, Dearborn Heights Mayor Bilal “Bill” Bazzi—a MAGA acolyte nominated by the president to serve as ambassador to Tunisia—on Friday said the patch, which would be the first in the United States to contain Arabic script, is merely an idea that “should NOT have been presented as an official prototype.”

In a since-deleted Facebook post published days earlier, the patch design had been celebrated by the Dearborn Heights Police Department, which serves a community with a significant Arab American population.

“By incorporating Arabic script alongside English, this patch represents unity, respect, and our shared commitment to service,” the post said. “Our officers proudly serve all members of our community, and this new design is another way we continue to celebrate the rich cultures that make our city unique.”

Many on the right hysterically took the design—which notably contains no religious content—as a harbinger of sharia law taking root in America.

“They said their goal was to bring sharia law to America. You should’ve believed them. Pray for Michigan,” wrote Republican Representative Randy Fine of Florida.

“Muslims have invaded America and now they are taking over,” wrote MAGA personality Laura Loomer on X. “The civilization takeover has begun,” posted conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel. “When you get conquered, you get a new language,” added Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

Going further, Auron MacIntyre of the right-wing media company Blaze Media tweeted, “Muslim immigration to the US must be halted immediately and mass deportations must be conducted. Stop it now while you still can.”

With the Trump-adoring mayor’s Friday statement, it appears the bigot brigade may get their way.