In a televised meeting so remarkable that even Fox News played clips on loop, Donald Trump shocked lawmakers from both parties with a brash suggestion. “I like taking guns away early,” the president said, waving away the Fifth Amendment altogether: “Take the guns first, go through due process second.” He went on to spout a list of conservative heresies, dismissing a House Republican proposal to increase concealed-carry permits, openly accusing the G.O.P. of being “petrified” of the National Rifle Association, and ultimately suggesting a complete gun-control-reform package in the form of a “[beautiful] bill that everyone could support.” Senator Dianne Feinstein could barely contain her glee.

For Republicans, the shock and confusion was palpable. “It’s alarming,” S.E. Cupp, the pro-Second Amendment host of HLN’s S.E. Cupp Unfiltered, observed to me. “It’s not because I like this issue, and he clearly doesn’t understand it. It’s alarming that the president of the United States has this disregard for pillars of our democracy. Take the guns out of it, and it’s still alarming.” Among Trump’s most loyal supporters, however, the betrayal cut deepest. “Trump bought into the dogma of the left during that meeting with his nonsensical rhetoric,” said Gateway Pundit’s Lucian Wintrich, who was widely condemned for suggesting that the Parkland students were paid actors. “This is literally a week after he was asking ‘is there no such thing as due process’ when it comes to allegations? Well, not if you disregard it. It was such a disorienting thing for him to say that mirrors the contempt the left has for conservatives and gun owners in this country, while directly buying into our fears.”

Still, Trump’s base will be willing to forgive—so long as Trump forgets. “[The comments] were idiotic . . . and he’s already moving away from them,” said conservative pundit and occasional Trump critic Ben Shapiro. If Trump continues his retreat, Shapiro added, his supporters will happily overlook his momentary lapse in judgement: “They’ve already baked his kooky statements into the cake. They don’t take his talk seriously. They take his action seriously.” The president’s most ardent supporters held out hope that he had misspoken. “Either that, or he was referring to how in some states, if someone gets involuntarily committed for mental issues they automatically can get their guns taken away,” said Jack Posobiec, a right-wing Twitter troll with a pro-Trump bent. Perhaps, he added, Trump was merely referring to Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, and had not meant to make a more sweeping pronouncement.

A small army of Republican surrogates were quickly dispatched to usher the president back into line. Fox News, which aired the meeting live, summoned N.R.A. spokeswoman Dana Loesch to push back. Calling the moment “made for good TV,” Loesch told host Martha MacCallum, “I want to be really clear what we’re talking about here. We are talking about punishing innocent Americans, stripping from them constitutional rights without due process.” Those less beholden to the gun lobby, meanwhile, were more vituperative. “If the President @realDonaldTrump dives on the 2nd Am he won’t have to worry abt who runs his 2020 campaign,” tweeted Fox News host and prominent Trump supporter Laura Ingraham, while right-wing Web site Newsmax, founded by Trump ally Chris Ruddy, placed stories about his comments front and center on its homepage. Several of the president’s biggest boosters remained silent: Sean Hannity said nothing about the meeting, either on Twitter or on his prime-time Fox News show Wednesday night.

Breitbart ran with several articles about the heresy, with one headline on the homepage calling him “TRUMP THE GUN GRABBER” and chastising him for mocking House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was injured in a shooting last year. The site’s two-paragraph article drew comments from torn supporters imploring the president to return to the fold: “Mr. President, nothing you will ever do will make those turds happy, unless you are impeached or one of them finally kills you,” wrote commenter Jean A, referring to Democrats. “You cannot make them happy. We are the ones you need to worry about—you need to make us happy.” Infowars’ story drew a similar but more paranoid reaction, as befitting their readership, with one commenter claiming that “ALL THE PLAYERS ARE TIED TO GEORGE SOROS.”