Trump threatens “Death and Destruction” if he is arrested: “I am your retribution”

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

Former President Donald Trump held the first rally last week to announce his candidature for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidency at Waco, Texas. Trump chose the site of one of the strangest and most tragic events in American religious history, the siege at Waco, Texas, on its 30th anniversary, casting the 2024 contest in apocalyptic terms. Waco was the story of a maniacal and apocalypse-minded cult leader, whose delusions led to the deaths of 86 people.

The Branch Davidians was a schism of a cult which originated in 1955, based on a prophesy of an imminent apocalypse involving the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the defeat of the evil armies of Babylon. On an announcement that Armageddon was about to take place, the leadership and cult members moved the church to a hilltop in Waco, Texas, which they named Mount Carmel, after a mountain in Israel mentioned in the Old Testament. They built houses, stayed in tents and their cars and most of them sold their possessions. When the prophecy did not materialize, the control of the cult fell to David Koresh, who declared himself to be Jesus Christ.

The Waco Tribune-Herald started to publish a series of articles in 1993 about illegal activities that were reported in the Mount Carmel compound. It was reported that Koresh had physically abused children, and directed that only he be permitted to have sexual relations with the women, while the husbands were directed to remain celibate. Koresh had laid claim to at least 140 wives, and had fathered at least a dozen children. Some of the little girls so abused had become mothers in their pre-teens.

In addition, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had been receiving reports that the group was stockpiling illegal firearms and grenades, and there were reports of automatic gunfire from the compound. The ATF obtained a search warrant on grounds that the cult was illegally modifying guns to increase their automatic fire capability, which led to the Waco siege.

The resulting firefight led to a number of casualties, until the ATF was able to establish communication with Koresh, who insisted that cult members were remaining within the compound of their own free will. Communications with Koresh became increasingly difficult when he proclaimed that he was the Second Coming of Christ and had been ordered by his Father in Heaven to remain in the compound.

The siege was concluded on April 19, 1993. Four agents and 82 cult members, including Koresh, were killed and the compound reduced to rubble.It is in the backdrop of this violent expression of religious freedom and the limits of the rights of the federal government that Trump chose to announce his candidature for 2024. At a time when the nation has been so polarized as to race, religion and color as never before since the 1960s.

Trump decided to declare his intention to run for the 2024 presidency, in spite of the fact that he is on the cusp of being indicted on four different felonies. Or perhaps he declared his intention to run because he is on the cusp of being indicted on four different felonies. He can now state that because he is the front runner for the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidency, all these investigations are politically motivated. Yet another witch hunt!

Trump himself predicted last week that he would be arrested on charges related to a hush money payment to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star. This is just one of the four ongoing investigations into Trump and his organization.

The Department of Justice has appointed a Special Counsel to investigate into the large number of classified documents found at his estate in Mar a Lago, Florida; and into his part in the incitement of an insurrection on January 6, 2021 to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election.

The New York State Attorney General is bringing up a civil lawsuit, alleging that the Trump Organization committed financial crimes, alleging, inter alia, that the Organization had lied to lenders and insurers about its assets.

In Georgia, the District Attorney in Fulton County is investigating into charges against the former president, alleging that he and his allies had made illegal efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. A member of the Grand Jury convened for this case divulged that the group had recommended multiple indictments.Trump has repeatedly and in his inimitable self-pitying, always the victim style, denied all these allegations.

Although organizers of Trump’s campaign rally deny that the site of Waco, Texas had been chosen because of the implications of violence, religious freedom and limits of federal rule, this may be considered to be disingenuous and too much of a coincidence. In fact, many right-wing extremists consider the Waco siege was a seminal moment of government overreach, and critics saw the choice of location and timing of the rally as a dog-whistle to Trump’s supporters. Trump’s incendiary rhetoric also indicates that the true motive behind the rally was to incite violence in case Trump was indicted on any of the charges against him.

Actually, the choice of Waco, Texas as the location of the first rally to announce his candidature may turn out to be ironically appropriate. It is likely that with all the criminal investigations swirling against him reaching their inevitable conclusion, his ambitions for a second term may, like Waco, also go down in flames.

Trump’s Saturday Waco rally opened with a song, “Justice for All” that featured a choir of men imprisoned for their role in the January 6 insurrection, singing the national anthem and a recording of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.Insurrectionists who attempted to destroy the democracy of the nation singing the national anthem at a political rally, led by the chief inciter of the insurrection – that is cult, pure and simple.

He said that the insurrectionists, “patriots” in his eyes, cult members in sane hindsight, will be vindicated, and described the investigations against him as “something out of the Stalinist Russia horror show”. “From the beginning, it’s been one witch hunt and phony investigation after another”, adding the head-scratching comment that “the investigations have proved that he is the most innocent man in the history of the world!” On his Truth social platform, he also threatened “potential death and destruction” if he is arrested.

“The twice-impeached former president’s rhetoric is reckless, reprehensible and irresponsible. It’s dangerous, and if he keeps it up, he’s going to get someone killed”, said House Democratic Leader, Hakeem Jeffries.

The rally attracted a far fewer crowd than expected, and when those few, visibly tired of the constant whining of the eternal victim for the major portion of the speech, started moving away, he went into his incitement mode, saying, “Protest, take back your country” and “They are not coming after me, they are coming after you. I am just in their way. I am your Retribution”. A whining, obese, orange skinned, bald reincarnation of Captain America.

While Trump is the clear front runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, he is by no means a certainty to win the nomination. Vice President Pence, the unsung hero of January 6 , who was mainly instrumental in ensuring the ultimate transfer of power, is showing signs of his willingness to talk about Trump’s culpability. A federal judge has also ruled that Pence must testify to the Grand Jury about his conversations with the former president leading up to that fateful day.

Former South Carolina governor and Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley has already announced her candidacy. Other potential rivals like Mike Pompeo are watching how Trump will perform and how he will be received with all the legal baggage he is carrying. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is flexing his muscles more publicly than the others, and although he is yet to make an announcement, he is representing himself as the “Trump without the baggage”. Actually, he is just another radical right, religious nut with a possibly more dangerous and insidious agenda.

With all these culture wars causing polarization of the nation, the legal battles facing Trump in the immediate future, and the political turmoil that will inevitably surround the presidential election in 2024, the nation is faced with important decisions.

Does the United States espouse the Rule of Law, where no one is above the law, or is it governed by the Court of Public Opinion? There are reports that an indictment of former President Trump will make him a martyr, and boost his chances of becoming president again. Should the law take into account a person’s popularity or position before dispensing a verdict of accountability?

The past three years, when the Department of Justice and other prosecutorial authorities have taken an inordinate time to build up their cases against Trump, show that the law is not applied in equal manner, that special attention and treatment has been given to a person who is a former president and a candidate for the 2024 presidency.

If Trump is a criminal, and there is every indication that he is, then treat him like one, no matter what he has been or hopes to be. If a little jog to the imagination is needed, just think of how the Republicans would have treated President Obama had he committed just one of the myriad crimes or indiscretions of which Trump is guilty. Remember the Fox furore about the tan suit?

As satirist Jon Stewart says, “Either America has the rule of law or it doesn’t. The question is, did he (Trump) do something wrong?” Stewart added, “I don’t see him ever actually going to jail. I personally don’t even care. I just want a system that somehow finds consistent accountability”.

A system where the welfare of the people is the primary focus of the democratic political machine. A form of government which implements laws according to the dictates, policies and ideologies of the Party chosen by the people. A process where the peaceful transfer of power is inviolable, the rule of law reigns supreme, and no one is above the law. In short, a return to the style of government which had existed in the United States until it lost its way with the onset of the era of the criminally incompetent, white supremacist Trump administration in 2016.