Protests at NRA’s first annual meeting since Parkland
Gun control activists are to meet 80,000 National Rifle Association supporters in Dallas this weekend, where the gun lobby is hosting its annual three-day meeting.
Trump, whose campaign accepted more than $30m from the NRA in 2016, spoke Friday afternoon at the first day of the convention. “Thanks to your activism and dedication. You have an administration fighting to protect your second amendment and we will protect your second amendment,” he said.
And if you’re wondering why the NRA is so powerful, the Guardian US business editor, Dominic Rushe, has the answer here.
Teacher backs immigrants and refugees in moment with Trump
At the White House this week, the National Teacher of the Year staged a silent protest by wearing overtly political badges, including one with a poster for the Women’s March, when she accepted her award from Trump.
Mandy Manning, who leads a classroom for teenage refugees in Washington, also wore badges that supported the LGBT community to the annual ceremony.
Manning told the Associated Press that in a private moment with Trump she gave the president letters written by her students and the community that she hoped would convey what coming to the US means for refugees and immigrants.
The annual ceremony took place against the backdrop of teachers’ strikes in Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Oklahoma and West Virginia amid complaints over stagnant pay and shrinking pensions.
What we’re reading
- Over at BuzzFeed, Scaachi Koul goes deep into the college Republicans’ internal struggles in lefty California, where some fear opposition to Trump will give Democrats an even greater hold on the Golden State. Koul writes how this young segment of the GOP reflects the broader struggle in the party: “Do Republican politicians need to be bold, unapologetic, and often wildly offensive, to be effective? Or should they return to the decorum and professional tenor formerly expected in politics?”
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