ATLANTA — President Trump received a thunderous welcome from thousands of gun lovers as he appeared here on Friday at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention to thank the group for its unwavering support of his presidential campaign.

A supporter of restrictions on guns before he entered politics, Mr. Trump became a fierce champion of gun rights during his bid for the White House, earning early backing — and $30 million in campaign support — from the powerful lobbying group.

“Only one candidate in the general election came to speak to you, and that candidate is now the president of the United States, standing before you,” Mr. Trump said. “You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you.”

The president was received as a hero, in part for successfully installing a conservative Supreme Court justice, Neil M. Gorsuch, who is seen as a likely protector of the Second Amendment. Mr. Trump in turn treated the gun convention like a political rally, joyfully recalling his election victory and mocking the journalists and Democrats who were confident that he would lose.

“Remember, they said there is no path to 270,” he said, referring to the number of electoral votes a candidate needs to win the presidency. “There is no route — there is no route to 270. We ended up with 306, so they were right.”

He predicted that he would have no problem dispatching any rival during a 2020 re-election campaign, suggesting at one point that Democrats might nominate Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. He referred to her as he did during the campaign, derisively calling her Pocahontas, a reference to claims she once made about being part Native American.

“It may be Pocahontas, remember that,” he said, prompting laughter in the cavernous room. “She is not big for the N.R.A., that I can tell you.”

Before the president’s arrival, attendees watched hours of videos assailing former President Barack Obama, Democrats and anyone who has advocated gun control measures. The crowd erupted in boos when the large screens showed campaign commercials from last year attacking Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee.

They also laughed as television clips showed members of the news media, Hollywood stars and even Mr. Obama predicting confidently that Mr. Trump would never be elected president.

“The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end,” Mr. Trump told the crowd after assailing Mr. Obama’s record on guns. Now, he said, “You have a true friend and champion in the White House.”

Mr. Trump, just shy of Saturday’s 100-day milestone in his presidency, stepped in front of the friendly audience amid a flurry of activity back in Washington. In just the past few days, his administration has released a tax plan and made and then rescinded a threat to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, while Republican lawmakers reignited their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Congress passed a short-term spending bill needed to keep the government running.

In addition to his Supreme Court pick, Mr. Trump has made some modest moves in support of gun rights. He signed legislation that reversed an Obama-era rule that would have required the Social Security Administration to provide information about mentally ill people for background checks on gun purchases.

Leaders of the N.R.A. heaped praise on Mr. Trump. Chris Cox, the executive director of the group’s political and lobbying arm, called Mr. Trump the “most proudly pro-gun presidential candidate” in history and accused the news media of lying about the number of people who watched Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

“The only number that mattered was the number who watched Hillary Clinton’s inauguration — zero!” Mr. Cox said.

Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive of the N.R.A., predicted that Mr. Trump would help wage war against elites in academics, politics and the news media. He called members of the news media “public relations flacks for the destruction of our country.”

Gun control organizations accused Mr. Trump of supporting what they call the “extremist” agenda of the N.R.A. In a statement on Thursday, two of those groups — Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action — vowed to oppose efforts by the gun group to “allow more guns for anyone, anywhere, no questions asked.”

Those gun control groups are planning a rally for Saturday in Atlanta to demonstrate their willingness to “stand and fight back against the N.R.A. leadership’s dangerous ‘guns everywhere’ agenda that contributes to the more than 90 Americans shot and killed and the hundreds more injured every day.”

In a statement after Mr. Trump’s speech, Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in the head in 2011, criticized Mr. Trump for not confronting the problem of gun violence in America.

“It’s time for our elected officials to listen to the American people, protect our communities and reject the gun lobby’s extreme agenda,” Ms. Giffords said.

After the event, Mr. Trump attended a fund-raiser for Karen Handel, the Republican House candidate in Georgia who will compete in a runoff in June to replace Tom Price, who left his seat to become health and human services secretary in Mr. Trump’s administration.

For Ms. Handel, who has been a poor fund-raiser, Mr. Trump’s help is a boon as she competes against Jon Ossoff, a Democrat who is receiving enormous financial support from around the country.

Ms. Handel also needs to energize Republicans to support her in a primary that is likely to have low turnout. Her willingness to be part of a high-profile fund-raiser involving Mr. Trump suggests that she believes rallying his supporters is her best bet to defeat Mr. Ossoff.

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