Donald Trump’s visit to the small town of Waco, Texas, where the ex-president is to hold the very first political rally of his campaign for the 2024 presidential election on Saturday, has been awaited for several days as a blessing by the Pastor Charles Pace.
“It’s a godsend! drops the man who, for more than two decades, has been the guardian of the memory of the siege of Waco, on the very site of the tragedy. There, in 1993, 82 members of the Davidian Messianic sect—and four government agents—lost their lives after a 51-day standoff with authorities. On April 19, it will be 30 years.
“This is an important year of commemoration which I hope will bring out the whole truth about what really happened,” he adds. This incident happened because there were patriots there who believed in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution [celui qui confirme le droit des Américains à posséder et à porter une arme] and who, threatened by the government, resisted and fought to the end to defend their freedom. »
“Donald Trump himself was besieged by the FBI”, adds Alexa, the pastor’s wife, at his side, in the small church which, on this battlefield, now serves as a center for the interpretation of the tragedy. .
On the walls, images of the guru, David Koresh, and the faces of the victims mix with extracts from the Bible, libertarian slogans and flags calling for the re-election of Donald Trump in 2024.
“He went through the same thing as here when the FBI hit his private residence in Mar-a-Lago,” she adds. It was last August. The authorities were then trying to recover a series of confidential documents, including several stamped with the “top secret” seal, which the ex-president illegally took out of the White House after his defeat in 2020. “We are the first city that he comes to visit for his campaign, a small town in Texas. And that is no coincidence,” she continues.
From drama to symbol
Waco: the small rural town of the Southern State became, 30 years ago, more than the site of a drama which struck the spirits, in the United States as elsewhere in the world, with its images of police officers of the ATF—the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—and the FBI attacking a religious community of men, women, and children. Under the yoke of Koresh, who claimed to be the new son of God on earth, the group was suspected of drug production and illegal possession of weapons. Among other things.
With the collective suicide of the members of the sect in a spectacular building explosion, the police operation has also become a national trauma. It is remembered in the history books as one of the deadliest events involving a confrontation between government and citizens since the Civil War.
Citizens, many of whom have since made Waco the symbol of resistance against abuse of power, state repression, while fueling a series of conspiracy theories that suggest that the collective suicide of members of the sect would have orchestrated by the administration of Bill Clinton, then president, to hide “stuff”. According to them, the destruction of this community has been guided by a “deep state” which constantly defends an elite with immoral behavior aimed at enslaving the United States in order to strengthen its power.
It is this specter of oppression and the “deep state” that Donald Trump has once again summoned this week to talk about the judges and “grand juries” who, in several cases, are approaching more and more of her heels. Last Saturday, approaching his first political rally in Texas, he announced that he would be arrested the following Tuesday by this politically manipulated power. His prophecy did not come true.
Friday morning, in an online statement, he did not hesitate to indirectly recall the spirit of Waco by speaking of the potential for “death and destruction” that could accompany a possible indictment of his person by the American justice, for crimes he denies having committed.
A calculated stop
“Choosing a location for a campaign speech or a political rally is always meant to mean something, summed up in an interview with Duty Michael X. Delli Carpini, former dean of the Annenberg School for Communications in Pennsylvania and a scholar of public opinion in politics. And in this case, that meaning is hard to miss. »
Four months after formalizing his candidacy for 2024, Donald Trump will therefore officially launch his campaign from Waco Regional Airport on Saturday, holding one of his large supporter rallies which, as has been the case for the past two presidential campaigns, have made his trademark.
“It’s something very exciting,” summarized Thursday Patty O’Day, political organizer met in the office of the Republican Party in McLennan County, of which the city of Waco is a part. “He never came here. It may make it a bit more difficult to get around in the car that day, but it’s worth the price. »
“Waco is a good choice for a Republican rally because it’s a growing Texas city between two big metropolitan cities (Austin and Dallas), but also a city that tends to stay more conservative, whereas other big cities cities across the state are all getting a little more liberal,” said Brendon Bankey, professor of communications at the University of Texas in Austin, in an interview.
Texas has also become, in 2022, the place in the United States where the propaganda of white supremacist movements – which support and benefit the populist and ex-president – has multiplied the most in a year, according to the Anti- Defamation League (ADL), which recorded 527 incidents there. This is about the distribution or display of stickers, banners, graffiti, posters and laser projections that are anti-Semitic, racist or targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Up 61% since 2021.
“Hardly a day goes by without communities being targeted by these coordinated and hateful actions, designed to sow fear,” summarized Oren Segal, vice president of the ADL Center on Extremism, quoted by THE Texas Grandstand. “These actions are also well documented by the extremists themselves to motivate their troops online and push them to promote white supremacy and hatred. »
Talk to patriots
From the Waco siege memorial, Pastor Charles Pace does not go that far, preferring instead to believe that Donald Trump chose the city of Waco to “send a loud and clear message to the resisters, to the defenders of the 2e amendment,” he said, but also to “speak directly to the patriots.”
“I know he’s read my book,” the man says, holding a self-published booklet in his hand that claims to offer “new revelations” about the Branch Branch. The document brings together a mixture of conspiracy theories combining elite, satanism and pedophilia, all mixed with biblical prophecies and advertisements for promotional items bearing the image of Donald Trump. “I gave two copies to Michael Flynn [ex-conseiller à la sécurité nationale de la Maison-Blanche, devenu porte-voix du mouvement MAGA de Donald Trump], whom I met a few years ago, asking him to give one to the president. He can’t ignore what happened here. »
And he adds: “Maybe he will announce that once reelected, he will declassify documents on the Waco massacre to finally get the truth out. Maybe he’s going to fly over here in a helicopter? Of course, I’m going to be at the rally he’s holding on Saturday. But if he decided to come here, I can tell you that I would come back here very soon. »
Friday morning, the former president’s campaign team had still not mentioned a possible visit to the Waco memorial by Donald Trump on Saturday. No meeting between the populist’s security services and Charles Pace, a meeting usually held several days before a visit to a place by a high-ranking person, was included in the pastor’s agenda.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.