Trump speaks at Waco rally as Manhattan DA mulls criminal charges

Former President Donald Trump, in his first campaign rally in the 2024 presidential race, pressed his grievance against Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg before a crowd of wildly cheering boosters in Waco, Texas on Saturday.

Bragg “stacked his office with D.C. operatives” and is “investigating me for something that is not a crime, not a misdemeanor, not an affair,” Trump said in the meandering speech.

Trump called Stormy Daniels — the porn star whose story of an affair he is accused of trying to bury — “Horseface.”

He labeled two prosecutors Bragg hired to prosecute allegations that a $130,000 payment to Daniels was handled illegally “human scum.”

He got the crowd to boo at the mention of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“I’ve got bad publicity and my poll numbers are going through the roof,” Trump said.

Trump went on to complain that any allegation of criminality against him “actually gets adjudicated in the press. People see it’s bulls—t and they go and they say, ‘Unfair,’ but it takes place by the department of injustice and their local henchmen in the AGs [attorneys general] and DAs [district attorneys] offices around the country.”

“When this election is over, I will be the president of the United States,” Trump told the crowd. “You will be vindicated and proud.”

In an apparent reference to his legal woes, Trump also said: “The weaponization of our justice system ... is the central issue of our time.”

Trump’s remarks in Waco didn’t match the intensity of his social media attacks of the last week about Bragg — which included a meme that appeared to show Trump aiming a baseball bat at Bragg’s head.

The Saturday afternoon event in Waco took place as a Manhattan grand jury considers criminal charges against the former Midtown resident.

Trump set off a tumultuous few days after inaccurately declaring March 18 that authorities intended to arrest him last Tuesday on charges related to hush money paid to keep Daniels quiet about their sexual encounter during the 2016 presidential race.

The Manhattan grand jury is to return this coming week to ponder the fate of the ex-president, whose aggressive attack on Bragg included a warning of “death and destruction” if charges were brought.

In the post of recent days, Trump also described Bragg as a George Soros-backed “animal,” prompting an angry response from a group of New York politicians alleging anti-Semitism. Their statement said Trump’s purpose was “intimidating and sabotaging laws a legitimate, fact-based investigation.”

Trump backer Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) made similar claims about Soros prior to Trump’s Waco rally. Hours before his address, Trump sent out an email blast asking supporters for money to help “DESTROY the Deep State.”