Trump at Texas rally calls witch hunt 'straight out of Stalinist Russia horror show'

Former US President Donald Trump on Monday held his first election campaign rally for the 2024 presidential elections just 27 kilometres (17 miles) from the Branch Davidian compound in Texas. The Republican leader addressed a humongous crowd of supporters in Waco, where he took a swipe against the US prosecutors for investigating him for what he had previously labelled as "sham" charges.

Trump at the rally, which was broadcasted live on the Republican party's Facebook channel, derided his rival Ron DeSantis, slammed Mitch McConnell as "weak," and likened strings of investigations against him to a "Stalinist Russia horror show."

'Enemies are desperate to stop us'

Trump berated US President Joe Biden as "corrupt" and questioned the Democrats for their "open border policy." He vowed that he will be the President of the United States in 2024. "As far as the eye can see, the abuses of power that we’re currently witnessing at all levels of government will go down as among the most shameful, corrupt, depraved chapters in all of American history," said the Republican leader smearing the opposition ruling Democratic Party. 

“Enemies are desperate to stop us,” and “our opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit and to break our will," Trump said, but "they failed." The ex-US President continued, “They’ve only made us stronger. And 2024 is the final battle, it’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again.”

Trump's campaign rally opened amid the prospects of his indictment. Ahead of his fiery speech, Republicans played the song, Justice for All. Among the choir were the Republican party supporter men who were imprisoned in connection to January 6, 2021, Capitol siege. They sang the American national anthem and later played a recording of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Referring to those who testified for the Jan. 6 storming of the government building to halt Biden's certification, Trump noted that they had "suffered" a lot and that they are "patriots." 

The 76-year-old former President of the US launched his election bid in Waco, a state known for the federal crackdown on the Branch Davidians religious cults that killed more than 80 people. He chose the state on the 30th anniversary of the raid. He told the MAGA crowd that the Democrats, whom he accused of "stealing the elections," were now trying to get him imprisoned.

Trump compared his trials and testimony with that of Russia or any other communist nation's political landscape, adding that the Democrats turned American politics into that of a third-world country. Trump claimed that the American presidential elections were hacked, and went on to add that Democrats were launching dozens of "unsubstantiated" legal threats against him. And even when his lawyers submitted 110 million pages to the Manhattan District Court, there was "nothing concrete" that they could find to charge him legally.

'Phoney investigation after another': Trump about indictment 

In the context of the mishandling of the secret documents, Trump said that "from the beginning, it has been one witch-hunt and phoney investigation after another." Trump is being investigated by the Manhattan court for campaign finance violations. He is accused of paying "hush money" to an adult film star Stormy Daniels when he was a presidential candidate in 2016. 

As he used his nearly 2-hour speech to slam his political opponents, the crowd of his supporters brandished placards that read "witch hunt." Trump took a swipe at Democratic President Joe Biden for what he described as "orchestrating his criminal prosecution." "The Biden regime's weaponization of law enforcement against their political opponents is something straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show," Trump noted. He accused "warmongering" Biden of trying to get him to jail. Trump promised to save America from "World War Three" and questioned why the American electoral system does not ask for voter ID. He then launched a scathing attack on Democrats saying that the "top leadership's" intention is to "steal" the election.