Death threats, calls to action and a Trump rally at site of deadly anti-govt siege - What's happening in US?
1 min read 26 Mar 2023, 12:33 AM ISTStaring down a possible indictment, a defiant Donald Trump is hoping to put on a show of force Saturday at the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign, in a city made famous by deadly resistance against law enforcement.
PremiumAs reports about his imminent arrest swirl - partly fuelled by former President Donald Trump himself - the Republican leader is now moving ahead with a controversial election rally. Billed as the former commander-in-chief's first major rally for the 2024 presidential race, the event will take place in Waco, Texas - a move that critics say will play to his far-right supporters.
Earlier in the day, the senior politician had predicted ‘potential death and destruction’ if he was indicted. Trump faces growing legal peril from a series of ongoing criminal investigations, including one in Manhattan related to an alleged hush-money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 White House campaign.
Trump has sought to paint the Manhattan case as politically motivated, insisting that criminal charges could lead to "potential death and destruction" and "could be catastrophic for our country."
“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States ... and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country?" Trump wrote on his social media site early on Friday.
ALSO READ: Donald Trump warns of death if 'charged' with crime
As he seeks a second term in the White House, Trump will lead his first major campaign rally in Texas on Sunday. While he insists that the location is a matter of convenience, many have highlighted the symbolism of holding a rally in Waco at this time. The event comes on the heel of the 30 year anniversary ff a raid by federal agents on the Branch Davidians religious sect that resulted in 86 deaths, including four law-enforcement officers. Some right-wing extremists view the raid as a seminal moment of government overreach.
Trump has also called for his supporters to “protest, take our nation back," — a call similar to when he urged his supporters to assemble in Washington and march to the US Capitol in 2021 when Congress met to ratify Trump’s loss in the election and a violent mob stormed the complex. However the calls to action have so far prompted a poor showing.
(With inputs from agencies)
