The 2019 Christchurch shooting in New Zealand was an object lesson. In response to the livestreamed carnage, heads of state from around the world gathered to address the challenges of countering far-right and all extremist violence, specifically on social media. But the Trump administration chose to not to sign on to the Christchurch Call to Action. Most people in the White House knew there was no chance that Trump would participate in the announcement of the Call to Action, but at one point those of us in Vice President Mike Pence’s office had convinced him to go instead. It would have put him on the stage with the world leaders committed to countering extremist networks. But fear of losing “the base” led Pence to pull out of the event just three days beforehand. There was considerable debate within our office about whether the Call to Action represented a possible infringement of First or Second Amendment rights, during which it became clear that such concerns were excuses not to alienate key constituencies—with some White House advisers conflating gun rights and right-wing extremism as if the two couldn’t be dealt with separately.