Trump's U-turn on guns is just another way of saying 'I'm in charge' to the NRA

This is not a man who is prepared to cuddle up to any constituency inclined to forget who’s in charge. Not his party, not Steve Bannon and Breitbart, not his handpicked appointments and not even the most unrepentant parts of his base

The President has indicated his support for confiscating firearms (AFP/Getty)

The reaction of California Democrat Dianne Feinstein to Donald Trump’s latest comments on gun control said it all.

The President had just ignited a firestorm (again) by calling for comprehensive gun control legislation, even going so far as to suggest a conversation about the sort of military grade assault weapons that are beloved by that nation’s lamentable recent crop of mass murderers.

Feinstein, whose gun control proposals the President appeared to support, looked like a Philadelphia Eagles fan after having watched quarterback Nick Foles carve up the New England Patriots defence in this year’s Super Bowl.

Trump took the Republican playbook and tore it up on background checks, bump stocks, age restrictions, and more besides.

“They [the NRA] have great power over you people,” he opined in a televised meeting with lawmakers. “They have less power over me.”

Up until now, the President has been singing from an NRA-approved hymnbook that says no to anything resembling sane gun control and characterises anyone who thinks otherwise as a godless commie traitor who wants to tear up the Second Amendment of the hallowed US Constitution and crush individual liberty.

Republican politicians put it on top of their Bibles before they go to bed

Guns don’t kill, people do. It’s mental illness that’s the problem. Law enforcement screwed up. We need to train teachers in the use of firearms and turn educational institutions into armed camps. That’s how to tackle school shootings!

That has been the Trump mantra in response to the awful events at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and it has put him in lockstep with most of his party.

Until, just as the pitching stars of America’s summer sport started their limbering up ahead of the forthcoming baseball season, he chose to emulate them by throwing a curveball that no one could possibly have predicted.

The media’s first take on the statements is that they won’t change anything much, and that is sadly true for America’s increasingly fretful parents.

The type of reform Trump appeared to endorse won’t get anywhere with Mitch McConnell leading the Republican majority in the US Senate and his fellow Republican Paul Ryan serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

They will not easily be persuaded to give up the ready supply of campaign money they have come to rely upon from the gun lobby.

There is a view that this episode simply speaks to Trump’s erratic approach to policymaking, his inclination to do things on the hoof rather than engage in the detailed thought, preparation and calculation preferred by his more conventional predecessors.

But it shouldn’t be forgotten that Trump is a populist who appears to crave approval, and he has the popular will on his side on this one.

Even parts of his party’s guns’n’god base, including no less than the gun owning right-wing evangelical Pat Robertson, have become queasy over the ease at which people can get their hands on military grade weaponry.

For me, having closely watched this presidency with an appalled fascination, in part because it’s oddly comforting to see that Britain isn’t the only nation to have completely taken leave of its senses, there is also something else at work.

Look at Trump’s history. Before assuming office he was the hereditary monarch of a private company, an absolute ruler answerable to no one, riding over critics, lenders and customers at various points in his career. Employees, especially senior employees, knew they had to sing “Hail to the Chief” when they got in, and be prepared to carry the can for anything that went wrong, or they could get gone.

The Donald was the boss and he’d damn well do whatever he damn well wanted to.

He has taken that approach with him to his presidency.

This is not a man who is prepared to cuddle up to any constituency inclined to forget who’s in charge. Not his party, not former BFF Steve Bannon and his Breitbart (it accused Trump of being a “gun grabber”), not his handpicked appointments, not even the most unrepentant parts of his base.

This may be seen as him saying: “Don’t you ever forget who’s on top. Don’t you ever dare to think you can take me for granted.”

It also handily deflects attention away from other scandals. And there’s a certain logic in throwing a bone to the Democrats, especially on an issue where they’re in lockstep with a big majority of the country, if it makes them more willing to do a deal at a later date, especially if the midterm elections strengthen their hand.

Not that logic has played any more of a role in US politics than it has over here of late.