Rally in shadow of anniversary
What to know about the Waco siege as Trump prepares to host event
Former President Donald Trump plans to hold his first campaign rally Saturday in Waco as the city marks the 30th anniversary of the federal raid of the Branch Davidian compound that left dozens dead.
The rally comes as the former president faces a potential indictment for alleged hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal in exchange for sexual favors. The New York Times reported that Trump “told friends and associates that he welcomes the idea of being paraded by the authorities before a throng of reporters and news cameras.”
Waco gained national attention after a botched FBI siege sparked wider anti-government sentiment throughout the country, the ripples of which are still felt 30 years later. Trump has already encouraged his supporters to protest the potential arrest.
A Trump presidential campaign spokesman said they chose Waco due to its central location, not for any larger symbolic meaning.
“This is the ideal location to have as many supporters from across the state and in neighboring states attend this historic rally,” said Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesman. “It also happens to be the home to the Baylor Bears, one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in America.”
Trump swept into office riding a populist wave in part by pledging to “drain the swamp,” lambasting agencies from the FBI and CIA to the Center for Disease Control and U.S. Postal Service as illegitimate and corrupt.
His disparagement of the government, and the acts of Jan. 6 insurrection that some say it has inspired, is part of a legacy of government mistrust that many trace back to Waco.
As the former president prepares to visit the central Texas city on Saturday, here’s a look back at what happened 30 years ago in Waco and the lasting impact it had on the country.
What happened in Waco
Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, who was born Vernon Wayne Howell in 1959 in Houston, joined the fringe religious sect in 1981 and assumed control over its 100-plus members in 1987 after shooting the former leader’s son.
Koresh, who believed himself to be the “the Lamb” and solely capable of unlocking the seven seals of the Book of Revelations, thus bringing about the apocalypse, began taking
multiple wives, including children as young as 11, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms first raided the compound on Feb. 28, 1993 after receiving reports that the Branch Davidians were stockpiling weapons.
The raid led to a gun battle which ended in the deaths of four ATF agents and six cultists, sparking the 51-day standoff that brought nearly 900 law enforcement officers and reporters from all over the world to the compound just outside Waco.
Koresh eventually began speaking with FBI negotiators over the phone, threatening violence but claiming he and his followers were not suicidal. He eventually released two dozen people, mostly children, in exchange for food and supplies. But the standoff continued, with law enforcement playing thundering music and bathing the compound with bright light to wear out the Branch Davidians.
The FBI raided the compound again on April 19, flooding the building with tear gas for more than five hours while the Branch Davidians fired at agents.
A fire broke out inside the compound following the attack, and the Branch Davidians were heard shooting. More than 70 people, including 25 children, died — some from gunshot wounds and others from the fire.
There was initially some debate around who started the fire at the Branch Davidian compound, and though an independent probe eventually absolved the FBI of responsibility for the blaze, the government’s handling of the incident drew heavy criticism and inspired mistrust which lingers today.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups and extremism in the United States, credits Waco and other standoffs as fueling the rise of independent militias in the 1990s. In 1995, on the two-year anniversary of the massacre, Timothy McVeigh, who had travelled to Waco to watch the siege, bombed a federal building in Oklahoma and killed 168 people.
Even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been accused of fueling conspiracy theories with origins in the Waco fallout. In 2015, Abbott ordered the Texas State Guard to “monitor” U.S. military exercises in Texas amid online hysteria that the federal government was trying to take over the state. An ex-CIA director later said that the conspiracy theories were amplified by Russian bots, and that their success emboldened the Russians to interfere with the 2016 election.
At the time, Abbott defended his decision to monitor the exercise and denied that he was legitimizing conspiracy theories.
‘Hugely symbolic’
Trump’s decision to hold his campaign rally in Waco is not the first time he’s chosen to host an event on the anniversary of a brutal attack. In June 2020, he had planned to hold a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the 99th anniversary of the Black Wall Street massacre, in which a white mob destroyed the country’s wealthiest Black community and killed hundreds of people. He eventually postponed the rally by one day after being met with outrage.
Several critics have spoken out against Trump’s decision to hold his rally in Waco, saying that it sends a tacit message of support to far-right extremists.
“Waco is hugely symbolic on the far right,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told USA Today. “There’s not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred – Christian nationalist skepticism of the government – and I find it hard to believe that Trump doesn’t know that Waco represents all of these things.”
Trump’s campaign has a different take, noting that Texas is an important Super Tuesday state.
They chose Waco “because it is centrally located and close to all four of Texas’ biggest metropolitan areas—Dallas/Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio—while providing the necessary infrastructure to hold a rally of this magnitude,” Cheung said.