Trump news today: Trump claims DA has dropped indictment as lawyer Joe Tacopina criticises Truth Social posts

Donald Trump used his first election rally in Waco, Texas, to rail against the prosecutors investigating him, employing dark and conspiratorial language to fire up his base ahead of next year’s Republican primary elections.

Mr Trump told supporters gathered at Waco’s airport on Saturday that the investigations swirling around him were “something straight out of the Stalinist Russia horror show.”

“From the beginning it’s been one witch hunt and phoney investigation after another,” he said.

The legal threats hanging over the former president were front of mind for some attendees, many of whom flashed signs saying “WITCH HUNT.”

He rallied against Florida governor Ron DeSantis and said “I’m not a big fan” of him and him of plotting to slash social security.

But one Republican who wasn’t a hot favorite at the sprawling event in the Texas sun? Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida – the former president’s most likely rival in the 2024 Republican primaries.

Many in the crowd told The Independent that Mr Trump still had their support for the top job.

“He’s the only one,” rallygoer David Lee said while dressed in a royal costume he said was in honour of “King Trump.”

Others in Waco were more supportive of Mr DeSantis but said he should wait his turn before taking on Mr Trump.

The former president has demanded that his supporters protest and “TAKE OUR NATION BACK!” from what he calls the “CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL” Manhattan district attorney investigation, but so far only a handful of demonstrators have rallied to his defence at small events in Florida and New York.

Mr Trump, cornered by several investigations and predicting his own arrest in at least one of them, held his first 2024 presidential campaign rally in the city of Waco, Texas – in the middle of the 30th anniversary of the deadly 51-day siege that galvanised the far right and set the stage for the modern militia movement.

Following the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021, extremism researchers have traced predictions from the former president and his supporters of violence and dysfunction, with ideological echoes of the infamous 1993 federal law enforcement standoff near the same Texas town where Mr Trump has steered his campaign.

“Given what happened on January 6, he’s playing with fire,” professor Matthew Dallek, a political historian of the right and homeland security issues at George Washington University, told The Independent.

Mr Trump opened the rally by playing a song recorded by a choir of men imprisoned for their involvement in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He then launched into a speech that echoed the same incendiary language he used in the run-up to that day.

“If we don’t win this election in 2024, I truly believe our country is doomed,” he said, hitting out at “demonic forces” who are “destroying the country.”

“Either the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep State,” the former president said.

Donald Trump made a series of Truth Social posts in the early hours of Monday morning – hours before the grand jury investigating the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels is poised to next appear in Manhattan.

In a sign the former president could be losing sleep over his potential looming criminal indictment, he was furiously sharing posts until 3.30am ET complaining about everything from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s probe to mail-in ballots and his political rival Ron DeSantis.

Former president Donald Trump opened his rally in Waco, Texas by playing a song he collaborated on with a group of inmates who are in prison for their actions in the January 6 riot.

Mr Trump is holding his first major campaign event since announcing his 2024 campaign in Waco, Texas – a week after he said he expected to be indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The song earned notoriety when it became the number one song on iTunes. The song is being used to raise money for the defendants through an LLC run by conservative activist Ed Henry.

Former president Donald Trump vehemently denied that he had an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels as he faces a potential indictment for paying money to keep their affair quiet.

The former president decried New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg for investigating the payment and criticised the US Department of Justice.

“The district attorney of New York under the auspices and direction of the Department of Injustice in Washington, DC, was investigating me for something that is not a crime, not a misdemeanor, not an affair,” he said.

Donald Trump’s personal lawyer refused to defend his client’s social media post attacking New York County district attorney Alvin Bragg who is overseeing proceedings on the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

Joe Tacopina condemned Mr Trump’s Truth Social post in which the former president was seen wielding a baseball bat next to a photo of Mr Bragg’s head.

Mr Tacopina was asked by NBC’s Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on Sunday if he would “advise a client to personally attack a prosecutor like this”.

“Given what happened on January 6, he’s playing with fire,” professor Matthew Dallek, a political historian of the right and homeland security issues at George Washington University, told The Independent ahead of the event.

When Trump Force One actually touched down in Waco, to a fired-up crowd that had been waiting in the scorching son all day on an airport tarmac to see him, the former president avoided mentioning the standoff itself, but offered scattered warnings of sinister forces, World War III, and an apocalyptic “final battle” that wouldn’t be out of place in a cult hall.

Jim McKee is standing at the end of a line that snakes through five aisles of fiction inside the Books-A-Million store in Florida’s capital city.

He is smiling because, in a matter of minutes, the book he’s holding will be signed by its author, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who Mr McKee believes should be the nation’s next president.

But as a former Donald Trump loyalist, the 44-year-old Tallahassee attorney almost whispers when he first says it out loud.

“Personally, I’d rather see DeSantis win the Republican primary than Trump,” Mr McKee says softly, having to repeat himself to be heard. His voice soon grows louder.