Donald Trump, facing potential indictment, held a rally in Waco, Texas, on Saturday, March 25, 2023, which marked the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign. The event was held on the airport grounds and was attended by hundreds of his supporters, many of whom carried red and white signs with slogans like “WITCH HUNT” and “I stand with Trump.”
Trump’s speech was defiant and incendiary, filled with resentment toward his opponents and defending the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He berated prosecutors overseeing multiple investigations of the Republican former president and framed the probes as political attacks on him and his followers. “You will be vindicated and proud,” Trump said. “The thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced.”
Trump’s choice of venue in Waco was eyebrow-raising, as it came amid the 30th anniversary of a 51-day standoff and deadly siege between U.S. law enforcement and the Branch Davidians, which resulted in the deaths of more than 80 members of the religious cult and four federal agents. The event has become a touchstone for far-right extremists and militia groups. Trump’s campaign insisted the location and timing of the event had nothing to do with the Waco siege or anniversary.
Trump did not make any direct references in his speech to Waco’s history, telling the crowd he wanted to hold his rally in a place with overwhelming support, not “one of those 50-50 areas,” and said he told Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who suggested the city as the venue, “Let’s go right into the heart of it.”
The rally had already been in the works before it became clear that a grand jury in New York was drawing closer to a possible indictment as it investigates hush money payments made to women who alleged sexual encounters with Trump during the height of his 2016 campaign. Trump has denied the women’s claims. The grand jury investigating the hush money payment is expected to meet again on Monday, March 27, 2023, in New York.
Trump has spent weeks railing against the probe and has raised the prospect of possible violence should he become the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges. In a move that seemed designed to preempt a formal announcement, he claimed last Saturday that he would be arrested the following Tuesday. While that did not happen, the specter of Trump’s possible indictment has loomed over his political activities.
During his Waco rally, Trump repeatedly railed against the investigations, declaring “prosecutorial misconduct” in the ongoing criminal investigations but also decrying past probes, including the release of his tax returns by Democrats in the U.S. House after a prolonged legal battle. “It probably makes me the most innocent man in the history of our country,” Trump said. “Friends of mine say that.”
The former president said he’s had “bad publicity,” but his “poll numbers have gone through the roof.” He also declared that “2024 is the final battle, it’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again.”
Trump’s rhetoric has echoed language he used before the Capitol insurrection by a mob of his supporters seeking to stop the transfer of power to Democrat Joe Biden, who won the presidential election. Despite being banned from major social media platforms, Trump has continued to use his own social media site to spread his message to his followers.
The rally was a significant event for Trump’s supporters, many of whom continue to see him as the leader of the Republican Party and the country.
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