Parkland teen: Trump only listens to people paying him 'blood money'

For Samuel Zeif, who lost his best friend during the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Trump’s recent capitulation to the NRA doesn’t come as a surprise.

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Zeif commented on how Trump, since the White House “listening session,” has been aggressively advocating on behalf of the NRA.

“I think he did hear us,” Zeif said of the Wednesday session. “But he wasn’t listening to us, mainly because he only listens to people putting money in his pockets. In this case, blood money. My friend’s blood. A lot of my classmates’ blood. I don’t think we’re going to get far with him right now.”

Indeed, in a bizarre, televised round-table discussion at the White House on Thursday, Trump engaged in NRA fantasies about the need to weaponize schools by paying teachers and coaches “a little bit of a bonus” for bringing a firearm into school everyday.

“I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected,'” he said.

Trump removed any doubts about his unbreakable loyalty to the NRA and its radical gun agenda on Thursday, in the wake of last week’s school mass murder.

Adopting the gun’s lobby’s bizarre plan to arm hundreds of thousands of school teachers and flood classrooms with firearms, Trump made clear he’s not going to be part of any serious debate about gun violence in comes weeks and months.

Zeif sees Trump plan as madness. He also thinks AR-15s, like the kind used to kill 17 teachers and students in Parkland, Florida, should be outlawed.

“I don’t think it should be available to the public, at all. It’s a weapon of destruction,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It’s a weapon of war. It’s not what our founding fathers intended in the Second Amendment. They intended for defense, and this is offense. This is not for protection.”

Zeif appeared at the White House on Wednesday and delivered a gut-wrenching monologue about the need to protect school children from guns.

“I turned 18 the day after. Woke up to the news and my best friend was gone,” he told Trump, while fighting back tears. “And I don’t understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war.”

As for his trip to the White House, “We had a long talk with him. And I’m sure that right after we left he had a long talk with the NRA,” said Zeif.

“And, who’s he going to listen to?”