Gun control activist David Hogg criticized President Donald Trump during an appearance on CNN Thursday, calling him “a coward” in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, as reported by The Independent Review.
The shooting occurred Wednesday morning during Mass at the school, when 23-year-old Robin Westman opened fire, killing two children and wounding at least 17 other people before taking his own life.
Authorities later confirmed that Westman, a biological male who identified as transgender, had posted videos online showing firearms with the words “kill Donald Trump” etched onto them.
Minnesota shooter who opened fire in the church of a Minneapolis Catholic School, killing two children, has been identified as Robin Westman, 23. A 10 minute video was posted before the shooting. It is archived here to preserve it for public access pic.twitter.com/DmmNkxE0op
— Cult of Moo-wu (@VHS_Archive) August 27, 2025
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Speaking with CNN’s Situation Room co-host Pamela Brown, Hogg said Trump should push for gun control and restore funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“The bottom line is this Donald Trump has the power to do something about this,” Hogg said.
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“After Parkland he repeatedly said, you guys are cowards, you’re not gonna do anything ‘cause you’re afraid of the NRA. We need to do something about guns. That is what he said. And then he met with the NRA and did nothing. Why? Because he is a coward.”
Hogg added: “And my message to Donald Trump is that you are a coward, sir. You are not going to do anything about this issue because you were terrified of the NRA even though you have the power to save tens of thousands of lives. You were the strongest president in modern American history with a chokehold over your party and both chambers of Congress. You have the power to end this, but you are not going to because you’re a damned coward.”
Activist David Hogg, who was ousted from his seat as Vice Chair of the DNC, says that Trump is a “coward” after a deranged transgender shooter kiIIed Christian children.pic.twitter.com/8h8QC5LBCH
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 28, 2025
Hogg, who became a national figure following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, linked his criticism of Trump to his long-standing advocacy for stricter gun laws.
After the Parkland attack, multiple law enforcement failures were identified in relation to the shooter, Nikolas Cruz.
During CNN’s coverage of the Minneapolis shooting, senior justice correspondent Evan Perez also came under scrutiny for a claim that semiautomatic firearms could fire “dozens of bullets” with a single pull of the trigger.
Semi-automatic firearms, however, discharge one round per trigger pull, a fact widely available in firearm operation manuals and on public information websites.
The National Rifle Association contributed $868,651 during the 2024 election cycle, according to Open Secrets, placing it 1,112th out of more than 40,000 political organizations.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation regarding Hogg’s remarks.
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