By Caitlyn Meisner | Copy Editor
Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at his first 2024 presidential campaign stop at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Waco Regional Airport.
Although Trump has given speeches across the country since announcing his candidacy in November 2022, the stop in Waco will be his first official campaign event in his third bid for the Oval Office.
Dr. Pat Flavin, Bob Bullock professor of political science, said Trump likely chose Waco because it is a “favorable political environment.”
“He won Texas in 2016 and 2020, and won McLennan County by over 20 percentage points,” Flavin said. “He has a lot of support here compared to, say, Austin. If he was going to come to Texas, it makes sense.”
Flavin also said Trump, like many politicians, holds rallies in places they will be greeted favorably. He said this strategy to visit counties and states where Trump is most popular is unique to the former president’s campaign strategy.
“It might make more political sense to focus on battleground states that are tossups, but that’s not usually Trump’s strategy,” Flavin said. “I think especially for these early campaign rallies, he wants to hold them in a place where he knows he’ll have a good base of support.”
San Antonio junior Caroline Carney said she’s excited for Trump to visit Waco and sees it as a smart move for his campaign.
“I think a lot of central Texas aligns well with Trump,” Carney said. “Waco is also very diverse, so I think it’ll be interesting to see if his speech is unique to Waco and how local issues are reflected in his speech.”
Carney said she’s unsure if she’ll attend the event due to comments Trump made in January about anti-abortion candidates in the midterm elections. Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social that the abortion issue was “poorly handled” by Republicans and is a reason why they did not perform well.
“Ultimately, Trump is not an evangelical Christian and the majority of whom have supported him [are],” Carney said. “He blamed a deeply held belief of a part of his base when really, he was the one who backed weak candidates. Looking at his expected competitor [Florida] governor Ron DeSantis, that doesn’t make [Trump] look very good.”
Austin senior Abigayle Hoeft said she wasn’t too happy when she heard Trump was coming to Waco because there is an impressionable population of voters in the city.
“To have someone as radical as him with his past and his involvement with Jan. 6, [2021], I think he’s really taking the opportunity of the fact that it’s a conservative college town to be able to manipulate the students and lower-income individuals in the city,” Hoeft said.
Hoeft said she expects a big turnout of Wacoans and Baylor students alike. She said she will “absolutely not” be in attendance.
“The demographic [he] appeals to is here,” Hoeft said. “Hearing him talk is the most infuriating thing; his fearmongering tactic to spread blatant misinformation is just infuriating. It’s hard to listen to.”
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., senior Ethan Moore said he was really confused when he heard Trump was coming to Waco, especially since he had announced he was going to be arrested Tuesday. As of Wednesday night, Trump has not been arrested in New York where the charges were filed.
Trump is currently being investigated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for the $130,000 hush payment his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to porn star actor Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.
Flavin, Carney, Hoeft and Moore all said they anticipated Trump to discuss the border, particularly the influx of fentanyl through Mexican cartels.
Flavin said this first campaign stop will be the litmus test of how broad and deep Trump’s support goes across the U.S.
“The most interesting part is… whether he still elicits the same fervor and passion among his supporters,” Flavin said.
Moore said he’s unsure of how this campaign will play out in comparison to the strength of 2016 and the flatlining of his 2020 campaign.
“His campaign from 2016 lit on fire with ‘Make America Great Again,’ it just had massive momentum,” Moore said. “When it changed to ‘Keep America Great,’ there was still a lot of issues with the U.S. I think he’s going to revert back to the 2016 strategy and pick up there.”
Parking to the event will be open to the public starting 8 a.m. Saturday. Doors will be opening at noon, with unannounced special guests speaking at 2 p.m. Trump will then be delivering his remarks at 5 p.m.
Stay tuned with The Baylor Lariat on social media for updates and coverage of the event.
