Array
As he faces possible criminal indictment, former President Donald Trump resumes high-profile political rallies Saturday in a unique place in the political world: Waco, Texas.
While Trump is accused of possibly playing to extremists for scheduling the rally during the 30th anniversary of the deadly siege of the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, the ex-president has a variety of reasons for choosing a city and state that are important in many political ways.
Waco is in the heart of Trump country, Texas division; a region of religious and anti-federal government conservatives very receptive to Trumpian politics. It’s also about as centrally located as you can get in Texas, within 200 miles of heavily Republican areas around Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio.
« Waco is a reliable Republican area, with Republican representation at nearly every level, » said Matt Mackowiak, a Texas-based Republican political strategist. « Feels rural. Culturally very conservative. Very pro gun. Very socially conservative. »
Hollywood’s Waco:’Waco’ star Taylor Kitsch on playing ‘manipulative,’ but not crazy Branch Davidian leader
Trump’s legal troubles:Jan. 6 Capitol attack 2 years later: Trump still plagued by multiple investigations
Waco is home to Baylor University and Dr. Pepper, and near the ranch in Crawford once owned by Republican President George W. Bush. Russia President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the area during the second Bush presidency.
In short, there are a lot of reasons for a Republican politician to visit Waco, although focus has turned to one: The 1993 raid-and-fire that claimed more than 70 lives.
It has been three decades since agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian compound and ran into a gun battle from the occupants. That began a 51-day standoff that ended with a tear gas raid and fire that destroyed the compound and left nearly 80 people dead.
Some far-right conservatives regard the 1993 fiasco as a deadly example of federal power. One of them, Timothy McVeigh, retaliated by bombing the Oklahoma City federal bombing exactly two years later, on April 19, 1995.
“I mean, they’re still talking about Waco as kind of this touchstone where they can refer back to as an example of extreme government overreach,” said Stuart Wright, the chair of the Department of Sociology at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.
The Trump event could motivate white supremacists and anti-government extremists, as well as right-wing populists, evangelical Christians, and Christian nationalists who love the ex-president’s style, said Wright and other analysts of the phenomenon.
“If you wanted to put in brief what is the lasting effect of the arrival of Donald Trump into American politics it’s bringing the most extreme bits of America into the mainstream,” said Lawrence Rosenthal, the chair of the Center for Right-Wing studies at the University of California Berkeley.
