For the first time since 2015, President Donald Trump won’t be speaking at the National Rifle Association’s Annual Meeting.
On Tuesday, the NRA confirmed President Trump would not be attending the event in Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of the month. It also said it had canceled the Leadership Forum, the part of the conference where Trump and other politicians usually address NRA members. It cited scheduling conflicts as the reason for Trump’s absence.
“Though President Trump is unable to attend the NRA’s 2025 Annual Meeting, he is always welcome on our stage to address our members and has done so on nine occasions over the last decade,” the NRA told The Reload. “As an NRA Life Member himself, President Trump remains a steadfast advocate for NRA members and a champion for the right to keep and bear arms. Considering the high level and pace of work being done by his administration on many fronts to make America great again and put America first on the world stage, we can understand that he has a complex, ever-moving schedule.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on President Trump’s decision not to speak. However, this is not the first NRA event he has canceled in recent months. At the end of the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump canceled a planned rally with the group in the swing state of Georgia.
The abrupt end to Trump’s streak of speaking at the NRA’s biggest gathering of the year, which draws tens of thousands of visitors, comes as his administration has taken a slower approach to gun policy reforms than most other areas. The White House left gun policy off its list of priorities, and Trump skipped it altogether during his record-long speech to a joint session of Congress in March. The decision to skip the NRA speech also reflects his diminishing relationship with the organization as it has struggled to pull out of a half-decade-long tailspin, resulting from former NRA leader Wayne LaPierre’s long-running financial impropriety.
In 2016, the NRA was one of the only major national groups to spend big on Trump’s candidacy. It poured over $50 million into that election, and its membership rose to all-time highs under his first term. It had direct access to Trump during much of his first term as well, with LaPierre and former-NRA lobbyist Chris Cox having Oval Office meetings with him.
However, shortly after Trump spoke at the 2019 Annual Meeting, news of LaPierre’s misuse of NRA funds caused a brewing leadership battle to boil over into public view. That fight lasted years and ended with the firing of Cox, loss of millions of members, as well as the ouster of LaPierre and a court finding he was liable for millions in damages. It also took a toll on the NRA’s ability to fundraise and spend in elections, with the group spending less and less through Trump’s subsequent presidential runs.
Still, the gun-rights group has remained a strong backer of Trump throughout that time. It has rarely publicly disagreed with him. The only notable times the NRA has criticized Trump came after he declared he wasn’t beholden to the group in the wake of the 2018 Parkland shooting, backing unrealized new gun restrictions, and he unilaterally banned bump stocks after the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting–which the Supreme Court eventually found unconstitutional.
The NRA also backed Trump during the 2024 Republican primary, despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis initially positioning himself to the right of Trump on guns. They brought Trump in to speak to NRA members at multiple Annual Meetings during his numerous criminal prosecutions, one of which ended in a felony conviction that bars him from owning guns. During his 2023 Annual Meeting speech, Trump even claimed he and the NRA were facing similar legal persecution at the hands of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D.).
“The very same raging radical left lunatic attorney general that is coming after me in New York state is also waging war on the NRA, shamefully trying to destroy this legendary organization that’s been an American institution since 1871,” Trump said at the time. “They better endorse me again or they’re going to have some explaining to do.”
The NRA also invited Trump to speak to members in Pennsylvania before he had wrapped up the nomination. Trump made a series of promises to undo President Joe Biden’s gun rules during that February 2024 event. The NRA formally endorsed him a short time later.
Still, a source familiar with the discussion about canceling Trump’s speech to the NRA, who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly, said the group has “fallen out of favor.” Although reformers have gained control of NRA leadership in the wake of the ruling against LaPierre and the group has already instituted some changes with more promised, the moves haven’t yet left a positive impression in the White House. That’s at least in part because the President “doesn’t even have any idea who runs NRA anymore or what they do.”
While Trump has put gun policy on the back burner and is well behind his own timetable to implement pro-gun reforms, the NRA has yet to criticize him during his still-young second term. The group has instead focused on the policy moves the Trump Administration has announced thus far. While it’s behind schedule, Trump did order the Department of Justice to review executive branch gun policies–which recently led to the official elimination of the Biden-era “zero tolerance” ATF policy toward gun dealer malfeasance or mistakes.
“In just over 80 days since he took office, President Trump has already made critical changes to safeguard the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans,” the NRA said. “This includes rolling back radical administrative rules instituted by the Biden-Harris administration and ordering the Attorney General to expose work by various government agencies and bureaus that limit the gun rights of lawful citizens.”
The NRA doesn’t appear to be changing tack despite Trump’s decision not to speak. Instead of complaining about Trump skipping its meeting, the NRA chastised Congress for not sending a reciprocity bill to his desk.
“President Trump has pledged to sign national concealed carry reciprocity into law,” the group said. “Congress should deliver this bill to his desk. We look forward to continuing our partnership with President Trump and his administration to further strengthen Second Amendment freedoms.”
The Senate version of concealed carry reciprocity currently has 46 co-sponsors, none of whom are Democrats, putting it well short of the 60-vote threshold likely needed to make it to President Trump’s desk.
The NRA’s 2025 Annual Meeting will take place at the Georgia World Congress Center from April 24th through the 27th. It’s not clear what, if anything, will replace the Leadership Forum.
UPDATE 4-15-2025 8:31 PM EASTERN: This piece has been updated with further quotes from the NRA and additional reporting.
