An image depicting a memo addressed to President Donald Trump from his longtime ally Roger Stone discussing plans to “confiscate guns of anyone deemed to be an ‘enemy of the state’” has recently gone viral across Facebook, X, and Bluesky. However, Stone has on several occasions said the memo is fraudulent and not from him.
The memo was dated from March 22, 2024 and cc’d to Trump’s two campaign co-managers, current White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, Trump senior adviser Jason Miller, and White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino. It was headlined “CONFIDENTIAL,” and stated:
As we discussed over the phone, when re-elected I believe you need to address the sticky issue of the 2nd Amendment and the ‘Right to Bear Arms” by our opponents and enemies.
We can get around the gun issue with our base by promoting a fix in early 2025 that won’t affect “patriots”[sic]. The fic could include a new licensing program that would ensure our enemies can’t get guns by empowering the FBI and local law enforcement with the right to confiscate guns of anyone deemed to be an “enemy of the state.” We can decide the parameters that would determine what actually is an “enemy” later so the base doesn’t flip out.
Please let me know whether you would like me to draw up some plans for this for your review.
An X user named “Anonymous” with more than 5 million followers tweeted an image on Tuesday of the memo. In a response to that tweet, another X user said, “Remember when I told you that Trump would eventually start disarming the public to prevent a constitutionally organized militias from removing him?” The user, with more than 100,000 followers on X, added, “I predicted this because Hitler did the same thing after consolidating power & Trump has followed Hitler’s plan closely so far!” Other users have shared the memo in recent days. “Like I tried to warn MAGA about before, dictators don’t like a population having gun rights,” tweeted one X user with more than 77,000 followers.
The memo is fake. Stone has repeatedly said that the memo is fraudulent and that its contents describe plans he does not support. “Attention. This forged and completely fraudulent memo is circulating yet again on X,” Stone tweeted on Tuesday night. “My signature is no doubt copied in Photoshop from many of the fundraising letters I signed for my legal defense fund. I have never advocated for the suspension of anyone’s Second Amendment rights. Thank you.” He has issued similar responses to the same fraudulent memo several times to June 2024.
Neither Stone nor Trump has publicly advocated for any policy of firearm confiscation for designated “enemies,” and the second Trump administration has not introduced any new gun licensing program.
The first Trump administration saw gun restrictions relaxed in some aspects, and heightened in others. As firearms expert and journalist Stephen Gutowski wrote for The Dispatch in May 2024.
Though he signed a bill rolling back an Obama-era restrictions and established gun manufacturers as essential businesses during the pandemic, he also unilaterally imposed the bump stock ban using ATF rulemaking to bypass Congress (which is currently being challenged as unconstitutional at the Supreme Court).
…
Trump also suggested enacting more gun restrictions during his first term. In the wake of the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, he held a meeting with lawmakers of both parties in the White House where he attacked his fellow Republicans as beholden to the NRA and expressed interest in pursuing so-called red flag laws and other gun-control proposals.
However, Gutowski added, Trump “eventually abandoned” both those gun reform proposals and a ban on AR-15s that he reportedly briefly considered in 2019.
If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.
Please note that we at The Dispatch hold ourselves, our work, and our commenters to a higher standard than other places on the internet. We welcome comments that foster genuine debate or discussion—including comments critical of us or our work—but responses that include ad hominem attacks on fellow Dispatch members or are intended to stoke fear and anger may be moderated.
With your membership, you only have the ability to comment on The Morning Dispatch articles. Consider upgrading to join the conversation everywhere.