On his way to today's CPAC conference, President Trump criticized the Florida deputy who didn't confront Nikolas Cruz, the school shooter from Parkland, Fla., saying "he certainly did a poor job," and insinuating that he was a "coward."

When a reporter asked about the security guard's behavior and tried to cite it as a reason why school districts shouldn't arm teachers, the president responded that the guard's behavior was certainly inadequate.

"Deputy Sheriff Peterson I guess his name is they brought it out and I was surprised - he trained his whole life but when it came time for him to get in there and do something he didn't have the courage or he didn't react properly. But there's no question that he did a poor job."

"He certainly did a poor job. That's the case where somebody was outside, they are trained, they didn't react properly under pressure or they were a coward."

Trump later made similar remarks during his CPAC speech - eliciting cheers of approval - though he refrained from referring to Peterson as a "coward." He then segued into a discussion of his plan to arm teachers.

"He was not a credit to law enforcement," Trump said. "He was tested under fire and that wasn't a good result."

"A teacher would have shot the hell out of him before he knew what happened," he said. "I don't want a hundred guards standing with rifles" but allowing "well trained gun-adept teachers and coaches" to have guns with them at school "would be a major deterrent."

Trump made no mention of the other ideas he's floated in the last week, including raising the age for buying rifles from 18 to 21, or banning bump stocks...