Last year, Trump's visit to the NRA was a hero's homecoming after the group helped put him in the White House following his unequivocally pro-Second Amendment campaign.
"You came through for me and I am going to come through for you," Trump told thousands of gun rights activists at last year's convention in Atlanta.
This time, Trump is more of a supplicant, needing vigorous turnout from pro-gun voters to offset what many Republicans fear could be a midterm election disaster in November.
The President is likely to highlight his staunch support for the Second Amendment and modest steps he has taken, under intense political heat, on gun safety this year.
Since he will be in a friendly crowd, there's no guarantee he will stick to gun issues: In such company, Trump is prone to wander off into monologues of political red meat -- from touting the confirmation of conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to the potential success of his North Korea policy.
But even a welcoming space such as the NRA convention may bring a subliminal reminder of the cloud that has haunted him since his earliest days in the White House: allegations of election collusion with Russia.
