Former President Donald Trump held a campaign rally for his supporters in Waco, Texas on Saturday night. The event is scheduled to start at 11 p.m. Norwegian time, but Trump’s election campaign meetings rarely get it right. At 23.30, supporters could cheer when Trump’s private plane, “Trump Force One” landed near the event location.

While the Waco rally marked the start of Trump’s election campaign ahead of the 2024 presidential election, the 76-year-old has spent little time on politics in the past week. Last Saturday, Trump announced that he would be immediately arrested by the Manhattan attorney general, who is investigating Republicans for possible campaign law violations. Trump has warned of possible “death and destruction” if he is indicted, and the possibility that an investigation may be high on the agenda during an election campaign meeting tonight.

Thousands of Trump loyalists flock to Waco, Texas ahead of tonight’s speech. That he chose to start his election campaign here is no accident. This year marks 30 years since the Waco massacre, in which FBI agents laid siege to the property of cult leader Koresh on suspicion of storing large quantities of illegal weapons.

After 51 days, federal agents attempted to force Koresh and the cult members out using tear gas. A massive fire broke out, and 76 people died – including 25 children.

Since the tragedy, Waco has become a symbol of the abuse of government power, and the incident has given rise to a number of conspiracy theories and mistrust of federal authorities.

To this day, Waco has strong symbolic value for the extreme right in American politics, and some experts believe Trump’s election was courting the more extreme sections of the voter base.

– You can’t pick another place in the United States that fosters hatred of this authority to the same degree as Waco. There is a Christian nationalist skepticism of authority. I have a hard time believing Trump didn’t realize Waco represented this, Heidi Beirich, founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism told US Today.