ALL COMEDY IS CONSERVATIVE:

You can trace certain pillars of Donald Trump's presidency back decades. He's long been a trade protectionist and advocate of tougher immigration policy. On other issues, though, he's shown a ballerina's dexterity.

Such as guns.

In his 2000 book The America We Deserve, Trump wrote: "I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons, and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun."

At the time, so-called assault weapons -- certain types of semiautomatic rifles similar to the kinds used in the Dayton and El Paso massacres -- were banned for sale (though with ample loopholes), along with high-capacity magazines. Last weekend's mass shootings have revived calls to bring back the ban.

But in Trump's evolution into right-wing hero and wildly successful first-time politician, he's embraced the National Rifle Association and waxed poetic again and again about the Second Amendment. Gun rights are a core value in rural America, for individual liberty or protection against feral hogs.

It's similar to his approach to abortion and other religious conservative tenets, in which Trump showed little interest before running for president but has proven powerful in bringing together and maintaining his coalition. (Or as another president once said, rural Americans "cling to guns or religion.")

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