Donald Trump will hold its first in 2024 presidential campaign collect Waco, Texason March 25, within the 30th anniversary period of the deadly 51-day siege by law enforcement at the association of the Branch Davidian religious cult.
A statement from the Trump campaign announcing the rally pointed to his support among Texas Republican voters in the latest poll by a right-wing media company, which found the former president leading in the state against potential 2024 rival Ron DeSantis.
February poll by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that 56 percent of Republican voters surveyed believe Trump should run.
Mr. Trump, whose campaign hailed Texas as “Trump Country,” was once a force of nature with the state’s GOP, though his political future in the state looks very different in 2024 compared to his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy recently endorsed the Florida governor, whom he called “a man of conviction.” Governor Greg Abbott also did not attend Trump’s October 2020 campaign rally two days before early voting began.
Trump’s first meeting of his 2024 campaign appears to have been scheduled amid a tense anniversary for the region, marking 30 years since the siege at the Mount Carmel Center ranch in Elk, Texas, in 1993, which ended with a fire that engulfed the area. and killed 76 people, including children and cult leader David Koresh.
Federal agents of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were met with gunfire when they attempted to search the property in February 1993, prompting a siege that ended on April 19.
The announcement of Trump’s campaign meeting also comes as the former president potentially faces looming charges from prosecutors in his home state of New York, involving hush money to adult movie star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. His actions are also at the center of an investigation in Georgia, where he applied press election officials to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after losing the state to Joe Biden.
Mr. Trump is also on center for investigations from the US Department of Justice involving the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and the mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving the White House.