Trump kicks off his '24 campaign in 'Mecca of hatred' Waco today — and there are parallels: report

Donald Trump’s is holding the first rally of his 2024 campaign today in Waco, Texas, and “the significance will not be lost on many of his supporters” as to why it’s the site, Mother Jones noted today.

Trump’s rally Waco coincides with the 30^th anniversary of the federal government’s siege of the compound of David Koresh’s Branch Davidians religious cult. By the time it ended, 82 Branch Davidians died – including Koresh and 28 children – as well as four federal agents.

“For a not insignificant slice of the right, Waco became the symbol of a federal government willing to target, torment, and — in more conspiratorial tellings — murder innocent people who just wanted to be left alone,” Mother Jones reported.“Trump’s Waco rally comes as the former president argues that he, too, is being persecuted by three-letter agencies as he awaits a potential indictment in New York state.

“The Waco rally sets up the current campaign as a battle against the Deep State forces Trump claims are intent on destroying him and his fellow patriots. A Trump campaign spokesperson says the location is merely about convenience, telling the New York Times that Waco was picked because of its proximity to Texas’ biggest metropolitan areas.

“But Trump’s supporters are drawing the obvious conclusion. “Waco was an overreach of the government, and today the New York district attorney is practicing an overreach of the government again,” a retiree who is traveling to the rally from Tennessee told the Times.

The magazine also observed this eerie parallel.

“Like Koresh, who told his followers that a showdown with their enemies in the outside world of “Babylon” was inevitable, Trump has been preparing his base for something like this for years. He posts incessantly about the New York investigation on his social media platform Truth Social, warning on Friday morning of “potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country.”

More than 70 ATF agents raided the Branch Davidians complex on Feb. 28, 1993, “even though they knew the Branch Davidians were expecting them that day,” the report noted. Four of the agents and six Branch Davidians died in a gun battle before the ATF retreated — setting off the 51-day siege” by the FBI.

The siege ended in a massive fire at the compound that the FBI stated was ordered by Koresh as a mass suicide. Many on the right continue to challenge that conclusion.