WACO, Texas — Thirty years ago, federal agents were in the midst of the 51-day siege of a compound here occupied by cult leader David Koresh and his anti-government followers. The siege ended in a firefight on April 19, 1993, after Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the FBI to attack the compound.
On Saturday, former President Donald Trump, who has made a political art of railing about supposed government-run conspiracies to rob him of power and freedom, held his first major rally of the 2024 presidential election cycle.
Trump, who has vowed “retribution” for his political enemies if he is elected again, put his grievances front and center at the event — such as his baseless belief that he “won” in 2020 but it was “rigged,” his frustration with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the government officials investigating him in three different cities.
“When this election is over, I will be the president of the United States,” Trump declared. “You will be vindicated and proud, and the thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced.”
Along with the physical backdrop of this small city on the Brazos River, within a three-hour drive of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, Trump is surrounded by the prospect of indictments in Manhattan, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., over questions about the hush money payment to a porn star, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump walked on stage with the “Justice for All” video playing —a choir of men incarcerated for their role in the Jan. 6 riot singing the national anthem, interposed with Trump reciting the pledge of allegiance. It included images of the insurrection as well.
Trump has been railing against the government officials investigating him, with increasingly dark warnings the “death and destruction” that could ensue should he be indicted.
But much as it’s impossible to ignore the obvious spectacle of an anti-establishment candidate stoking thousands of his supporters at the site of a showdown between federal agents and anti-government conspiracy theorists, there are more traditional political reasons why Trump picked Waco as the launch point for a new round of his trademark rallies.
As he seeks the GOP presidential nomination for the third time in a row, Trump and his team well understand the importance of Texas in delivering delegates to the Republican National Convention. The state is second only to California in the number of delegates available, and it will matter more to the final count than the first four early states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — combined.
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also said in his remarks before Trump spoke that it was actually his idea for the rally to be held in Waco.
“It’s guaranteed to be a crowd for him and it’s part of I think the success they can have in going to red states,” said one former Trump campaign aide. “It is intimidating. It’s a show of force. Here’s 10, 15,000, whatever, people in a room and nobody else can do that.”
It also fits his basic pattern of picking sites that are outside major cities but accessible to them.
“President Trump is holding his first campaign rally in Waco in the Super Tuesday state of Texas because it is centrally located and close to all four of Texas’ biggest metropolitan areas,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said. “This is the ideal location to have as many supporters from across the state and in neighboring states attend this historic rally” as can make it.
Trump’s aides dismiss the possibility that holding a Waco rally during the 30th anniversary of the siege might show sympathy to anti-government voters.
“That sounds like stuff that people in New York or D.C. who have never even been to Texas would say,” said one Trump aide.
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