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Trump plays the greatest hits of airing grievances, attacks during first campaign rally

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Former President Donald Trump treated a crowd in Waco, Texas to a 90-minute performance of some of his greatest hits from past rallies, speeches and social media posts during his first campaign rally of his 2024 election campaign.

In between rambling, stream-of-consciousness storytelling that could impress William Faulkner, the 45th president continued his verbal attacks on longstanding political targets Rep. Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., etc. false claims about his lose in the 2020 presidential election and the on-going quintet of investigations into alleged wrongdoing in his business dealings and reported attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Not losing his touch for theater, Trump repeated a tactic used during the closing months of the 2020 campaign: flying in on his personal plane then Air Force One, now his private Trump-branded 757 landing on the airfield and emerging from the sky right onto the speaking platform. On live stream, cameras panned to the jet airliner streaking down to the rally site while Kenny Loggins Danger Zone blasted on speakers to score the moment. His sense of television production upped the whole flash and draw of the production, which included introductory remarks by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., two of his closest allies in the House of Representatives, and a pledge of allegiance performance by outspoken conservative rocker Ted Nugent.

Former President Donald Trump points to the crowd as he leaves after speaking at a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Following his ascent to the podium, and a rendition of the song Justice For All that he made with the J6 Prison Choir which hit number one on Billboards Top Digital Sales chart Tuesday, after being at the top spot for iTunes song sales for days Trump dusted off the old playbook to launch into a rapid-fire takedown of his, and his audiences, favorite enemies.

He called out warmongers, neo-cons, globalists, communists, Marxists noting after these last two We dont even talk about the socialists anymore, that train left the station long ago as well as the fake news media, which conjured a round of boo-ing from those attended.

2024 is the final battle, he said, striking a Biblical tone. Put me back in the White House and America will be a free nation once again. Because if we dont win this next election, 2024, I truly believe our country is doomed.

Former President Donald Trump holds his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas. (POOL)

In speaking about the coming election, but more so the previous one, Trump repeatedly claimed that 5 million instances of voter fraud were captured on camera. This appeared to be an echo of an assertion he made after the 2016 election, claiming he would have won the popular vote if it was not for the 3-5 million immigrants living in the country illegally that supposedly voted illegally. It is unknown where he got the latest claim of 5 million instances of voter fraud which he called ballot box stuffing.

Flanked from the back by a bleachers-section filled with supporters holding Trump campaign-branded signs that read Witch Hunt, he continued to allege mistreatment in the six investigations against his political and financial dealings. Trumps ultimate chalk-up as to why he was going through these judicial processes was the Biden administrations weaponization of the Department of Justice, a claim repeated by other close congressional allies like Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the House Oversight Committee.

Biden regimes weaponization of law enforcement against their political opponent is something right out of the Stalinist Russia horror show, he told the crowd. Between our borders, our elections and the weaponization of law enforcement banana republic thats what weve become.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport Saturday, March 25, 2023, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Of the (at least) five investigations into Trump, only two are being conducted by the Justice Department under President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland. Furthermore, those investigations into his possible mishandling and illegal retention of classified documents as well as his possible culpability in the events of Jan. 6, 2021 are being handled by an outside, special and independent counsel: Jack Smith, a former U.S. attorney with no party affiliation.

Two are state-level investigations. New York Attorney General Letitia James is pursuing a civil case against Trump as well as his children Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric over whether he knowingly and fraudulently overinflated assets to potential lenders and insurers. Georgia just wrapped up a grand jury investigation into any potential criminal conduct by the former president during his efforts to overturn the results of the states results in the 2020 election.

Lastly, there is the local, municipal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into whether Trump violated campaign finance laws by making hush money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels and playboy model Karen McDougal in the months immediately leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has not only denied any wrongdoing in all cases but, in response to a potential coming indictment in the hush money case, called for his supporters to protest in what many see as an echo to the language he used in the lead up to Jan. 6.

Trump also told what are likely a few totally fictional, yet plausible-sounding, stories throughout the rally. Ive been running for office, sir, for 28 years. I ran for president a couple times, Trump told the crowd. Im greatly experienced, I think you should listen to me. I ran for office one time, and I became president, Trump said in mock-retort. So, I want to listen to you [gestures to crowd], I dont want to listen to them.

He continued to further needle his potential rival for the 2024 GOP nomination, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, at points throughout the speech. At one point, Trump segued rapidly from talking about his support for farmers to how DeSantis could not do well with farmers and then criticized the governors response to COVID and rising crime rates. Later, he appeared to mock DeSantis for alleging that the then-future governor begged for Trumps help on the campaign trail in his 2018 race against Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.

This also, perhaps, spurred a rare moment of bipartisan agreement between Trump and Biden at one point, about a third of a way through the speech. In his continued jabs at DeSantis, Trump said, Its never good to try and destroy social security. Its never good to raise the minimum age to a very high level, which was not good; and to go against Medicare and try to obliterate it. President Biden famously managed to get Congressional Republicans to verbally agree to not touch social security during one of his oratorical sparing sessions with the caucus during his recent State of the Union address.

DeSantis called for deep cuts to social safety nets like Medicare while he was a member of the House of Representatives; he also voted for a nonbinding budget resolution that called for raising the age to collect those benefits to 70. He has since been attempting in recent weeks to walk back his previous positions as he rebrands himself for the national political stage.

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Trump plays the greatest hits of airing grievances, attacks during first campaign rally - KATV