Two years ago, Trump appeared in the same space, the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room, and gave a speech about the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one counterprotester dead. He seemed to say the right things, denouncing racism and calling white supremacists “repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” But what he actually believed sprang into view the following day, when he gave an impromptu news conference at Trump Tower in New York City. From the lobby of his building, in one of the most infamous and polarizing moments of his presidency, he said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the confrontation.

Read: White-nationalist terrorism must be stopped

A test of Trump’s interest in curbing mass shootings will be which script he follows in the coming days and weeks. Mass shootings have “become a major national problem right now that needs real answers,” Doris Kearns Goodwin, the presidential biographer, told us. “It’s not just a question of rhetoric. It’s much more about actions—which, in this partisan environment, will be very difficult. Something more than rhetoric is necessary.”

According to a third former senior White House official, Trump’s instinct to promote stricter gun measures stems from genuine feelings of distress and helplessness. “It actually does affect him more than people would probably expect,” the official told us. Consider his unscripted comments as he gathered with lawmakers after Parkland. Referring specifically to tighter gun-control laws, he urged the group: “We have to do something about it. We have to act.”

But then consider those words in light of a speech he delivered at the NRA convention in April, in which he assured the gun lobby that he is “a champion” of the Second Amendment. “It’s not going anywhere,” he said. “It’s under assault, but not when we’re here. Not even close.”

Two of the former officials suggested that, after mass shootings, Trump falls prey to the same amnesia that so many other Americans do: He feels an urgency to act in the immediate aftermath of a shooting, but then finds that urgency muted as time goes on and the next day’s headlines roll in. (Since his speech this morning, Trump has tweeted about “historic currency manipulation” in China four times.)

The first former official argued that Trump undercuts his own message because he becomes preoccupied by the same grievances that dictate so much of his presidency. “I found he was often willing to be led by higher purposes and more noble impulses, if urged by those around him: healing, unity, moral clarity,” this person said. But it rarely lasted. “That orientation was quickly discarded if he was criticized or didn’t get the credit he thought he deserved, or something [else] served as a distraction.”

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Elaina Plott is a former staff writer at The Atlantic, where she covered the White House. Connect Twitter