Former President Donald Trump is being criticized for calling on his supporters to destroy the “deep state” in what many understood as a new call to militia-style violence against the goverment.
During his Waco rally on Saturday, the former president sounded cult-like notes of apocalyptic violence, telling his followers:
“Either we surrender to the demonic forces abolishing and demolishing – and happily doing so – our country, or we defeat them in a landslide on November 5, 2024. Either the deep state destroys America, or we destroy the deep state,” he added. “We’re at a very pivotal point in our country.”
Political observers warned that Trump is again fomenting political unrest over his electoral defeat in 2020 and them multiple criminal investigations into his conduct.
“Given what happened on January 6, he’s playing with fire,” said professor Matthew Dallek, a political historian of the right and homeland security issues at George Washington University, according to The Independent.
During a lie-filled speech, Trump railed against the prosecutors in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington considering unprecedented criminal charges against the former president, calling them “the Department of Injustice and their local henchmen.”
Supporters who attended the Waco rally suggested that only drastic action could counter a shadowy enemy and turn things around, with some saying that “taking over the white house” by force may be necessary.
“If people really loved this country, 50,000 people would go take over the White House and say no more of this,” said Will Montfort of Bryant, Texas, The Independent reported.
Attendee Shelley Harrison, of Dallas, said that officials are targeting Trump because he helped expose “child trafficking issue,” a QAnon conspiracy theory that purports that Democrat and media elites are responsible for child trafficking.
“He knows too much,” she said. “He’s exposing the truth. They don’t want people to believe him.”
America has “been hijacked” Steve Harris, a retired statistics professor from Waco, told The Independent.
When asked, “Hijacked by whom?”
“Either you know or you don’t,” he said.
