A tweet from Donald Trump criticising Hillary Clinton has resurfaced after he denied that he would want guns brought into schools, but this was at odds with his latest comments.

In 2016, Trump hit back at claims from Clinton that he wanted to bring guns into schools. He denied this by saying "Crooked Hillary said that I want guns brought into the school classroom. Wrong!"

But this view seems to have been proved wrong, when he spoke from the White House on Wednesday he suggested that guns could be brought into schools.

"If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly, and the good thing about a suggestion like that — and we're going to be looking at it very strongly, and I think a lot of people are going to be opposed to it. I think a lot of people are going to like. But the good thing is you're going to have a lot of [armed] people with that," he said.

The comments were made in front of pupils, staff and parents who had survived the Florida school shooting last week, which saw 17 people killed.

Teachers and students as young as 14 were shot dead by former Stoneman Douglas High School pupil Nikolas Cruz on 14 February 2018. He was arrested by police in Florida and later charged with 17 counts of murder.

But this morning, the president unleashed a tweetstorm, denying that he wanted to bring guns into schools.

He said: "I never said "give teachers guns" like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC. What I said was to look at the possibility of giving "concealed guns to gun adept teachers."

However, despite his apparent backing down on this area, he issued another tweet in which he suggested that stricter gun controls were now needed.

On Twitter, he said: "I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of Bump Stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue - I hope!"

This would place him at odds with the all-powerful National Rifle Association, who although back background checks, the wording of Trump's latest tweet would suggest something that was beyond what the NRA would support.

Since Donald Trump came to power in January 2017, his presidency has seen the deadliest US mass shooting of all time, the fifth deadliest and the latest in Florida being the ninth deadliest.

The deadliest shooting was the October Las Vegas Strip massacre which saw 59 people killed at a music concert with more than 800 others injured.

The fifth deadliest was the Sutherland Springs church shooting where 27 people died in November.

Donald Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump (C) speaks during a listening session with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who survivied last weeks mass shooting (L-R) Jonathan Blank, Julie Cordover and Carson Abt and others in the State Dining Room at the White House February 21, 2018 in Washington, DC Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images