Facing a potential indictment, Donald Trump took a defiant stance at a rally Saturday in Waco, disparaging the prosecutors investigating him and predicting his vindication as he rallied supporters in a city made famous by deadly resistance against law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a hand over his heart, Trump stood at attention when his rally opened with a song called \u201cJustice for All\u201d performed by a choir of people imprisoned for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Some footage from the insurrection was shown on big screens displayed at the rally site as the choir sang the national anthem and a recording played of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The extraordinary display opened Trump\u2019s first rally of his 2024 Republican presidential campaign. He then launched into a speech brimming with resentments and framed the probes, including a New York grand jury investigation, as political attacks on him and his followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou will be vindicated and proud,\u201d Trump said \u201cThe thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s event at the airport grounds in Waco was part of a broader effort by the former president to use the potential indictment as a rallying cry for supporters to maintain his status as the GOP frontrunner in what is expected to be a crowded primary. It came one day after Trump raised the specter of violence should he become the first former president in U.S. history to face criminal charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump declared his innocence in the Manhattan investigation into a hush money payment made during the 2016 election to porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump years earlier. A grand jury hearing the case is expected to meet again on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump said the Manhattan district attorney was investigating him \u201cfor something that is not a crime, not a misdemeanor, not an affair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of Trump\u2019s recent rhetoric, including at the rally, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump declared Saturday that his \u201cenemies are desperate to stop us\u201d and that \u201cour opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit and to break our will.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added: \u201cBut they failed. They\u2019ve only made us stronger. And 2024 is the final battle, it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump could be indicted soon by a Manhattan grand jury investigating a $130,000 payment that Trump\u2019s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, made as Trump was in the throes of his 2016 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump later reimbursed Cohen and his company logged the reimbursements as a legal expense. Cohen has already served time in prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, among other crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s eyebrow-raising choice of venue in Waco for his first rally came amid the 30th anniversary of a 51-day standoff and deadly siege between U.S. law enforcement and the Branch Davidians that resulted in the deaths of more than 80 members of the religious cult and four federal agents and has become a touchstone for far-right extremists and militia groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s campaign insisted the location and timing of the event had nothing to do with the Waco siege or anniversary. A spokesperson said the site, 17 miles from the Branch Davidian compound, was chosen because it was conveniently situated near four of the state\u2019s biggest metropolitan areas \u2014 Dallas\/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio \u2014 and has the infrastructure to handle a sizable crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said before Trump\u2019s arrival that he was the one who had suggested Waco as the venue. Any suggestion Trump had picked the city because of the anniversary was \u201cfake news. I picked Waco!\u201d he told the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump did not make any direct references in his speech to Waco\u2019s history, telling the crowd of thousands that he told Patrick he wanted to hold his rally in a place with overwhelming support, not \u201cone of those 50-50 areas,\u201d and said he told Patrick, \u201cLet\u2019s go right into the heart of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At several points, Trump criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run for president and is seen as his strongest potential challenger for the GOP nomination. Trump called his onetime ally disloyal and said he was \u201cdropping like a rock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Audience members were holding red and white signs handed out by the campaign that said \u201cWitch Hunt,\u201d \u201cTrump 2024\u201d and \u201cI stand with Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hours before Trump arrived, hundreds of his supporters began streaming into the airport past vendors selling merchandise including Trump flags, bumper stickers and action figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among them was Eugene Torres, 41, who said he was unfazed by the prospect that Trump could be indicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just another political attack on him to keep him from running and winning this race again,\u201d said Torres, who is from the Texas coast city of Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alan Kregel, 56, traveled with his wife from Dallas to see Trump in person for the first time. While he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, he said he felt the former president\u2019s \u201cmethods and vocabulary\u201d often detracted from his policies. But now, two years out of office, he said he is more supportive of Trump than he was before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an innocent man, just persecuted,\u201d said Kregel, arguing an indictment would help Trump win in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has spent weeks now railing against the New York probe and in a post on his social media site on Friday warned of \u201cpotential death & destruction in such a false charge\u201d if he\u2019s charged with a crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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, Trump has used the days since to try to shape public perception \u2014 echoing a strategy he has used before, including during special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s Russia investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has also repeatedly invoked violence, urging his supporters to protest, and used increasingly racist and dehumanizing rhetoric as he has launched ever more personal attacks against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Friday, a powdery substance was found with a threatening letter<\/a> in a mailroom at Bragg\u2019s offices, authorities said. Officials later determined the substance wasn\u2019t dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even before the threatening letter was sent to Bragg\u2019s office, Democrats warned that Trump\u2019s remarks had the potential to incite violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe twice-impeached former president\u2019s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible. It\u2019s dangerous, and if he keeps it up he\u2019s going to get someone killed,\u201d House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the Manhattan case, Trump is also facing an investigation in Georgia<\/a> over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election as well as federal investigations into his handling of classified documents<\/a> and possible obstruction, as well as his efforts on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n