Trump supporters line up HOURS before Trump is due to speak at Waco

Hours before Donald Trump is set to speak in Waco, Texas, his die-hard fans have already started lining up to see their presidential candidate.

The former president, 76, will hold a rally in Waco this afternoon, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the FBI raid on Branch Davidians formerly led by David Koresh.

As Trump fans do best, hundreds arrived dressed in the Republican’s merchandise, from ‘Trump Girl’ T-shirts to Make America Great Again caps, as they lined up en masse from 7 a.m.

Merchandise is also available to purchase at the event for those who forgot, including dazzling Trump jean hats. The event officially begins at 2 p.m. and Trump is expected to deliver a 60-90 minute speech around 5 p.m.

A man was even seen running through the streets of Waco holding an American flag with Trump’s face printed on it and the words: ‘Trump’s Front Row Joes.’

Branch Davidians are said to be excited about Trump’s weekend rally in Waco, considering him ‘God’s anointed’.

A fan wore a bright hat with the American flag printed on it in Waco.

The Branch Davidian is said to regard the former president as “the battering ram that God is using to bring down the Deep State of Babylon.”

The 1993 Waco siege was a 51-day standoff between the US government and the Branch Davidian.

The FBI raid on the group’s Mount Carmel compound, which Branch Davidians view as government overreach, is similar to what they claim happened to Trump.

Holding a Trump rally in Waco is ‘a statement: that the FBI besieged him at Mar-a-Lago and that they were accusing him of different things that are not really true, just like David Koresh was accused by the FBI when they besieged it,’ Koresh’s successor, Pastor Charles Pace, told the New York Times.

The Trump campaign insisted that the location and timing of the event had nothing to do with the siege or the Waco anniversary. Instead, a spokesperson said the site was chosen because it was conveniently located near four of the state’s largest metropolitan areas — Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio — and has the infrastructure to handle sizeable crowds.

“This is the ideal location for the largest number of supporters from across the state and neighboring states to attend this historic rally,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said.

The former president, 76, will hold a rally in Waco this afternoon, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the FBI raid on Branch Davidians, formerly led by David Koresh.

Older women use their walkers to get around the airport grounds before the rally.

A woman put on a cowboy hat with a Trump Rally button on it

A girl wearing heart shaped sunglasses for an American flag cowboy hat decorated with Trump 2024 on it

Hundreds lined up from 7 am for the 2 pm event. Trump is expected to give a 60 to 90 minute speech around 5 p.m.

The city is part of McLennan County, which Trump won in 2020 by more than 23 points. The airport where the rally is taking place is 17 miles from the Branch Davidian precinct.

The rally had already been in the works before it became clear that a grand jury in New York was closing in on a possible indictment as it investigates hush money payments made to women who alleged sexual encounters with Trump during the height of his 2016 campaign. Trump has denied the women’s claims.

But the timing will give Trump a chance to demonstrate his continued popularity among the Republican base and cast himself as the victim of a politically motivated “witch hunt” as he campaigns for a second term in the White House.

The rally comes as Trump rebuked prosecutors, encouraged protests and raised the possibility of possible violence if he becomes the first former president in US history to face criminal charges. Some of his recent rhetoric has echoed language he used prior to the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol by a crowd of his supporters seeking to stop the transfer. power.

‘What kind of person can accuse 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 to all that NO Crime has been committed, and it is also known that the potential death and destruction on such a false charge could be catastrophic for our country?’ Trump wrote on his social media site early Friday morning.

Fire consumes the Branch Davidian Compound during the FBI assault to end the 51-day standoff with cult leader David Koresh and his followers in March 1993.

David Koresh was the leader of the cult claiming to be Christ, and his followers were involved in a confrontation with police at the compound in 1993.

The grand jury is investigating the hush money payment and is expected to meet again Monday in New York.

Trump has spent weeks criticizing the investigation. In a move that seemed designed to pre-empt a formal announcement and galvanize his loyal base, he claimed last Saturday that he would be arrested the following Tuesday. While that didn’t happen, Trump used the days since then to try to shape public perception, claiming, for example, that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had been thrown into “total disarray” even though there was no evidence to suggest that prosecutors were walking away from the case.

The Manhattan case centers on a $130,000 payment that Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen made to porn actor Stormy Daniels when Trump was in the midst of the 2016 campaign. Trump later reimbursed Cohen and his company recorded the refunds as a legal expense. Cohen has already served prison time after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress, among other crimes.

Trump is also facing an investigation in Georgia into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, as well as federal investigations into his handling of classified documents and possible obstruction, as well as his efforts on January 6.