White House Roundup: Trump on Guns, Mideast Peace Plan, and Trouble with the Mooch

WASHINGTON - President Trump appears to have cooled on the idea of background checks following mass shootings in Ohio and Texas. On Sunday, he told reporters that it's a mental health issue and lawmakers need to focus on that issue.  

Trump changed his tone after pushing for "meaningful" background checks. Adding that he's concerned with the second amendment and that "people don't realize we have very strong background checks right now."

"I don't want people to forget this is a mental health problem," the president said.  

"It's the people that pull the trigger, it's not the gun that pulls the trigger," he added. "So we have a very big mental health problem and Congress is working on various things and I'll be looking at it. We are very much involved at what they are studying."

Trump said that bi-partisan committees are already working on background checks and an update may be available when lawmakers return in a few weeks. 

A New Mideast Peace Plan?

The president also talked about his Middle East peace plan.  He plans to unveil his proposal after Israel's elections calling it the "toughest deal of all."

"Peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, because they've been decades of hate.  And it's tough to make a deal when there's that much hate," Trump said. "But I think I've helped it very much by saying 'Look until there's a deal, we're not going to pay you anymore.' And other people should have done that long before me."

As CBN News reported in June, a starting point of the long-awaited Middle East peace plan aims to get both the Israelis and Palestinians to talk and address the core issue of the conflict. 

The challenge lies with the Palestinian Authority who cut off diplomatic ties with the US after President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. 

'The Mooch': Trump vs. Scaramucci

It appears the feud between Trump and his former White House communications director is heating up on Twitter.

Anthony Scaramucci, his former aide now turned nemesis, is threatening to put together a coalition of former cabinet officials to essentially speak out against Trump in an effort to find an alternative Republican nominee in 2020.

Trump hit back on Twitter calling Scaramucci "highly unstable nut job" adding that he "barely knew him until his 11 days of gross incompetence-made a fool of himself, bad on TV."

Anthony Scaramucci is a highly unstable "nut job" who was with other candidates in the primary who got shellacked, & then unfortunately wheedled his way into my campaign. I barely knew him until his 11 days of gross incompetence-made a fool of himself, bad on TV. Abused staff,...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2019

Scaramucci predicts his coalition will go public by the fall.  In the meantime, it appears the spat will continue on social media.