Trump 'ripped the rug out' from under his base with latest 'gaffe': expert

President Donald Trump seemingly betrayed a major building piece of his base with his comments on Alex Pretti's killing.

Federal agents gunned down the 37-year-old nurse last weekend during an immigration surge in Minneapolis, and the 79-year-old president and some of his top administration officials have blamed Pretti for his own death because he was legally carrying a firearm at the time.

“With that being said, you can’t have guns,” Trump said Tuesday. “You can’t walk in with guns. You just can’t.”

Trump disagreed with his top adviser Stephen Miller, who characterized Pretti as a "would-be assassin," but he reiterated those remarks hours later, saying “I don’t like that he had a gun, I don’t like that he had two fully loaded magazines," and CNN's Zachary Wolf commented on what that means to the GOP base.

"I mean, I think there are alot of people who would like tosee fewer people carry guns inthe in the country," Wolf told "CNN This Morning." "A lot ofthem are not Republican voters.So when he says that kind ofthing, when you go aftersomebody who was legallycarrying a gun, somethingthat's allowed in this countryunder the Second Amendment, verycontroversially, for a lot ofpeople."

Gun rights groups have already spoken out against Pretti's fatal shooting, as host Audie Cornish pointed out, but Wolf doubted the president's remarks would cleave off his base supporters.

"He basically ripped the ripthe rug out from underneath yourbase," Wolf said. "So you know, that seems tobe a gaffe on his part. Butlet's look at the larger issuehere. You know, guns are aproblem in the in the country and, you know, maybe this willpeople have people talk aboutit. Probably not."

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