2nd Amendment, tax cuts at risk if Democrats take power: US President

US President Donald Trump in a speech to Conservative activists on Friday implored them to get off their "a**" and "clobber" Democrats in upcoming elections, so that they do not try to repeal the Second Amendment, undo recent tax cuts, and install liberal judges.

In a fiery speech, the Republican President said the Democrats would "repeal the tax cuts" of Americans if they got into power.

In the speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, Trump said, "They will put judges in that you wouldn't believe. They will take away your Second Amendment, which we will never allow to happen."

Trump in the election campaign-style speech ticked off his accomplishments over the last year, including passing tax cuts, moving the US embassy in Jerusalem and withdrawing from the Paris climate accords, Fox News reported.

The President also talked at length about the debate over gun control, in the wake of February 14 school shooting in Florida that left 17 persons dead.

Calling for more armed security in schools, Trump said, "The teacher would have shot the hell out of [the attacker] before he knew what happened."

"When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones, it just puts our students in far more danger," Trump said. "Well-trained gun-adept teachers and coaches should be able to carry concealed firearms."

Talking about former Broward County Sheriff's Office Deputy Scot Peterson, who was on campus at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland during the shooting, but did not go inside while it was happening, Trump suggested Peterson was a "coward".

"You had one guard, he did not turn out to be really good, I will tell you that," Trump said. "He turned out to be not good. He was not a credit to law enforcement that I can tell you."

He emphasised the importance of future elections, including the upcoming midterms and 2020 presidential contest, warning the crowd not be complacent. Trump expressed hope Republicans "clobber" Democrats "because everybody gets off their 'a**', and they work".

"It is a natural instinct," the President said. "You just won, and now, you're happy and complacent. Don't be complacent."

Trump said of the upcoming midterms, "We have to get out there, and we have to fight in '18 like never before."

Amid a breakdown in negotiations over protecting illegal immigrants who came to the US as children, Trump said Democrats "totally abandoned DACA", saying they were not willing to negotiate on other immigration reforms.

He called for a merit-based system and expressed his opposition to the VISA lottery program, saying, "They are not giving us their best people, folks."

The President also criticised Republicans, who did not support his agenda, referred to Arizona Senator John McCain, who has been battling cancer and voted against the Trump plan to repeal ObamaCare.

"I don't want to be controversial so I won't use his name," Trump said of McCain.

At the end of the speech, Trump announced "heaviest set of sanctions ever imposed" against the North Korean regime.