Trump warns about consequences of Democratic victories in 2018

OXON HILL, MD —President Donald Trump promised to make schools “a harder target,” praised himself for delivering tax cuts, promised supporters a border wall, and warned about the consequences of not winning elections in 2018 as he addressed a packed room at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday.

“They will take away those massive tax cuts and they will take away the Second Amendment,” Trump said, referring to Democratic candidates.

The previous morning, the annual gathering of conservative activists had cheered National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre and spokeswoman Dana Loesch as they called for armed professionals in public schools in response to a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.

As Democrats and gun control advocates pushed for signal changes in gun laws, Trump showed little inclination to oblige. Instead he echoed LaPierre’s and Loesch’s talking points in favor of arming personnel at schools.

“Why do we protect our airports, our banks, our government buildings, but not our schools?” Trump argued. “It’s time to make our schools a much harder target.”

Trump felt sufficiently at home to show his playful side. He asked the CPAC participants which of the two they’d prefer to keep – the Second Amendment or tax cuts? (The Second Amendment garnered more applause.)

At one point, he looked at the large video screens that flanked him and said, “What a great picture that is. I’d love to watch that guy speak.” Trump then turned his back to the crowd, stared at the screens, stroked his hair, and mugged, “I try like hell to hide that bald spot.”

Trump returned to the 2016 campaign, as he often does, as he recalled TV pundits who argued the political novice could not win the electoral college. After Trump called Democratic rival Hillary Clinton “crooked,” attendees chanted, “Lock her up. Lock her up.”

He repeated his big 2016 campaign promise for a wall across the southern border. “Don’t worry, you’re getting the wall,” Trump said.

Trump also pulled out lyrics from “The Snake,” a 1968 soul hit about an elderly woman who takes in a sick snake that pays back her kindness with a lethal bite. During the 2016 campaign, Trump frequently used the lyrics as an analogy to illegal immigrants.

In the same speech, Trump charged that Democrats “have totally abandoned DACA” — President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that granted legal status to some undocumented immigrants who entered America as minors through no fault of their own.

In September, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued an order to end DACA; a court ruling suspended that action. Negotiations between Democrats and the White House over immigration policy have since broken down.

“It’s clear to everyone but President Trump that it was he who forced the DACA issue when he ended the program,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., responded in a statement. “Democrats have been willing to negotiate for months, and have forged several bipartisan deals, but his refusal to take yes for an answer led to his partisan plan that only got 39 votes,” a reference to a GOP immigration bill that tanked in the Senate.

“Now he’s headed in the same direction on gun safety,” Schumer continued. “If he continues down this path, his calls for bipartisanship will ring hollow. The president needs to step up and lead.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.