Waco Redux
originally posted: 27 January 2026
Donald Trump chose Waco, Texas—a symbol of government overreach for the right—as the site of his first 2024 campaign rally. Waco represents to many on the right, a defining moment of tyrannical federal action: the government’s deadly confrontation with the Branch Davidian cult became a longstanding symbol of excessive state power, making it a strategic place for Trump to energize his base around a narrative of threatened freedoms.
At this rally, Trump escalated his rhetoric by suggesting that 2024 would be “the final battle,” and that reinstating him as President was necessary for America to be “a free nation once again”.
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For those of you who are unfamiliar, the popular telling of the Waco siege goes as follows. In 1992, a man named David Koresh took over the leadership of an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventists called the Branch Davidians. These 130 doomsdayers (91 of whom were women, children, and the elderly), foreseeing an almighty battle at the forthcoming end of the world, began to stockpile weapons to become an “army of God”. Because of this war footing, the ATF was justified in planning a surprise raid on the compound, replete with three helicopters and close to 80 agents donning camouflage. As the Davidians had been told the raid was coming, it devolved into a shoot-out and settled into a 51-day siege. During this period, the media reported extensively on Koresh’s crimes, his sexual abuse of children and his manufacturing of methamphetamine. The government was, of course, justified when it cut off electricity, denied food, and blared music nonstop for 51 days; and the government was justified when it eventually sent in tanks, the Texas National Guard, and the Army’s Joint Force Six (arguably in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act) to attack the compound.
When the compound caught alight, the 76 people who burned to death inside, including 27 children, did so at the behest of Koresh1. The media were at the scene, having been alerted ahead of time about the assault, but there was a decision not to have the fire department on scene in case they were shot at by the Davidians. Bradley armoured vehicles bulldozed the remains of the compound, bringing a welcome end to the operation dubbed Showtime. On review, it was found that, but for the criminal conduct and aberrational behaviour of David Koresh and other Branch Davidians, the tragedies that occurred in Waco would not have occurred. The ultimate responsibility for the deaths of the Davidians and the four Federal law enforcement agents lies with Koresh.
Many Americans disagree with the official narrative about Waco, seeing the siege as a government-sanctioned massacre. Despite my staunchly left-wing politics, I have always felt strongly that there was, in fact, overreach in the government’s response to David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. Today, I see value in invoking Waco, just as Trump did nearly two years ago.
Before I go on, I need to state that I am aware that David Koresh was not a good man. Bad men are still entitled to due process. Bad men are still entitled to have their constitutional rights upheld. And David Koresh was not the only person to die at the Mount Carmel compound. The other people who were raided, sieged, shot at, and burnt to death because the ATF bungled the delivery of a search and arrest warrant deserve consideration, too. While the victims in Minneapolis differed significantly in character from David Koresh, federal law enforcement exhibited a consistent pattern of actions and attitudes in both cases.
Since Trump has entered the political world, there have been constant attempts to make traditional Republican voters understand the severity of the moment. One tactic is to make comparisons between federal agencies operating under the Trump administration and the Nazi regime. However, this comparison has failed to gain any traction. The image of the Nazi as the ultimate evil is seen as a liberal conception. For many, the events of the Second World War are too distant, both in time and place, to relate to. Organizations like the Gestapo have been so reified in the media that they almost don’t feel real. The worst don’t take issue with the actions of the Nazis. But for many, they do not see themselves as at risk under a regime like the Third Reich. They can see themselves in the Waco compound. Instead of trying to convince Republicans that ICE agents are Nazis, we need to show them that protestors are like the Branch Davidians.
Parallels can be drawn between Waco and Minneapolis:
Second Amendment rights are conditional, based on the government’s presumption of your intended use of firearms.
There is a lot of mythology surrounding Waco and the siege; however, the actual reason for the siege was an ATF investigation into the Branch Davidians, which resulted in a search warrant for the Mt Carmel compound and an arrest warrant for David Koresh over firearms violations.
Specifically, the search warrant was for evidence relating to the unlawful possession of fully automatic machine guns and destructive devices, and the arrest warrant was for the unlawful possession of a destructive device. The punishment for these offences was a fine or up to 10 years’ imprisonment. However, publicly, it was the number of weapons owned by the Davidians that was repeatedly cited, and it was the number of weapons that swayed the ATF’s decision to take such a heavy-handed, militaristic approach to delivering the warrants.
There were a lot of weapons at the compound. However, it is not illegal to possess many weapons. Funnily enough, the number of weapons totalled to three guns for every one resident at the compound, which was still fewer than the Texan average of four guns per household resident. Large firearm stockpiles can be legal under the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986 and the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Anders. Stockpiling is not unusual among those who deal in or invest in firearms. Most of the Branch Davidian stockpile was legally compliant.
There was heavy speculation about the weapons stockpiled at the compound. The federal agencies guessed publicly and confidently about their intended use: an inevitable final battle against law enforcement or a mass suicide. There was no doubt in the testimony of the ATF and the FBI that these guns were going to be used for something nefarious.
Rather than an apocalyptic battle or mass suicide, the more likely explanation for the Branch Davidians’ stockpile is the one they gave themselves. An explanation corroborated by class III gun dealer Henry McMahon. The Branch Davidians were trying to make money. Bill Clinton had just won the Presidential election, and there was a strong sense that automatic guns were about to be outlawed, meaning their price would likely increase significantly. And that, in fact, turned out to be the case. The group was legally purchasing AR-15 semi-automatic rifles and converting them to automatic M-16 rifles with the intention of delivering them to licensed gun dealer Henry McMahon to sell them at a significant profit before the ban came into play.
Converting the machine guns was definitely illegal, and the Branch Davidians did not have the required license to possess machine guns once they had been converted. But the plan had been to give the firearms back to McMahon for sale. After the ATF paid Henry McMahon a visit, he got cold feet about the venture and cancelled the contract for the M-16s. This left the Branch Davidians with a bunch of unlicensed automatic rifles. We can therefore understand that the violations central to the ATF warrants related to the Branch Davidians’ failure to apply for federal licenses or relinquish the firearms in their possession. The imposed narrative of a planned Holy War overshadowed the mundane reality. This demonstrates how the government’s assumed intentions for weapon ownership can override legal rights, sometimes justifying violence—illustrating the broader dangers of state power projection.
In Minneapolis, Kristi Noem has said of Alex Pretti that he was “wishing to inflict harm on these officers, coming, brandishing like that,” purporting intent that is demonstrably false. Brandishing is a legal term that means displaying a firearm in a way that makes its presence known to another person to intimidate them. This is not what can be observed in the footage of Pretti’s slaughter. Bovino echoed Noem’s sentiments, claiming not to know of any “peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign.” Again, this implies a violent intent on the part of Pretti, who can be seen on camera intervening to stop the violence of federal agents against two women, without any attempt to reach for his weapon.
Kash Patel decided to unilaterally repeal the Second Amendment by claiming that “you cannot bring a firearm, loaded, with multiple magazines to any sort of protest you want. It’s that simple.” But you can constitutionally do so under the Second Amendment. A masked federal agent feeling afraid doesn’t take away that right. It is likely that Pretti carried a weapon for his own protection and not to kill federal agents.
While Renee Good was not exercising her Second Amendment right, she was driving a car, as many Americans do. Using her car to obstruct federal agents’ activities as a form of protest, after a short verbal confrontation with an agent, she begins to move her car to leave. Good is them shot three times. The government insisted that when she began to operate the vehicle, she was trying to kill one of the agents. The government claimed homicidal intent, superimposing intention to justify lethal action. As with Waco, in Minneapolis, officials use imposed motives to legitimize violating rights and using deadly force, revealing a pattern of the state using its narrative to rationalize extreme power.
The government will justify their actions using a larger ideological framing.
It is almost on the nose to bring up manufactured consent, but the government is still happy to manipulate public opinion to make otherwise unconscionable acts permissible. Through the dissemination of selective information, the use of highly emotional material, the strict policing of discourse boundaries, and the persistent pushing of a consistent narrative, the government can change what people see as the facts on the ground.
A lot of information was distributed by government agencies and the media about the Koresh and Davidians; that Koresh was sexually abusing the children in the compound (this is likely true); that the Davidians had a death wish like Jonestown; that the Davidians were manufacturing methamphetamines; and that the Davidians were stockpiling weapons in order to attack the government. These phantasms were very powerful in the minds of the American public. Cults, Drugs, and Child Sexual Abuse are all prima facie bad. In general, the American people support government intervention to stop such things. So, these issues were the focus for the government and the media. All of these narratives were offered in order to justify the government’s outsized and lethal response. The massacre at Waco is diffused by the fact that Koresh was a religious fanatic, a child abuser, and a criminal.
But the ATF were not investigating Koresh for any of those acts, nor could they. The ATF were not there to save members of the cult, to rescue children, or to bust a drug lab. They were not attacked at random by an apocalyptic extremist group. They had a warrant to look for guns and arrest Koresh for possessing them. Serving such warrants should have been a run-of-the-mill operation. In reality, 75 people, including 27 children, were shot to death or burned alive over a paperwork issue.
Both Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered for exercising their First Amendment rights. They were protesting the government’s actions and legally observing federal agents.
Homeland Security is intent on asserting that they are in Minneapolis to deport illegal immigrants, despite the evidence pointing to the exercise being far more political in nature. A great number of Americans support the ideological mission of the government to tighten immigration and deport undocumented people.
In the same vein, the administration spends considerable time praising and supporting its law enforcement officers. Many Americans feel a great deal of respect and gratitude for law enforcement officers, understanding the often-dangerous nature of their jobs. These frames have been used to justify the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Anyone who protests the actions of Homeland Security is automatically framed as working with undocumented criminals against law enforcement. Anyone who disobeys an agent’s order or calls out their unprofessional behaviour is liable to be shot.
In order to justify the senseless murder of two Americans by their government, members of the administration have been quick to label Good and Pretti as terrorists. Because who wouldn’t support the government in a fight against terrorism?
Noem claimed that Good had attempted to run over the ICE agent, calling it “an act of domestic terrorism”. JD Vance concurred, stating that the incident was “classic terrorism” and that protestors more broadly were engaging in “domestic terror techniques”. Regarding Pretti, Stephen Miller called him “A would-be assassin [who] tried to murder federal law enforcement” and then accused the Democrats of “siding with the terrorists”. These sleights of hand are done to manufacture consent for the government unjustifiably murder their citizens.
The government is the belligerent party, and no amount of compliance or acquiescence will save your life.
Koresh was not hostile to law enforcement prior to the siege. He was compliant and, by some accounts, quite friendly. While Henry McMahon, the licensed gun dealer, was being visited by an ATF agent, he called Koresh to inform him that an investigation was taking place. In response, Koresh asked to speak to the agent (the agent refused) and invited the ATF to the compound to inspect his stockpile. The agency never did this, which was later acknowledged as a mistake in the Congressional hearings.
Koresh’s relations with the local sheriff’s department were also positive. In an interview series with Waco survivors, Davidian Clive Doyle recalled: “David always welcomed people in. He had given the invitation to sheriffs’ deputies to call or come out if they had any questions about anything. A Texas Ranger had come out there. He was welcomed. Deputies came out on a social basis, to fish, trade guns or car parts, or talk about cars or guns. They would drive by and wave, very friendly”.
The sheriffs had previously visited the compound and served warrants without issue and with the Branch Davidians’ compliance. Branch Davidian David Thibodeau asserts Koresh also tried to reassure BATF undercover agent Robert Rodriguez about the Davidians’ willingness to cooperate, telling him, “If there are any problems, I’ve invited the sheriff’s department in here a number of times. If they have any questions, they can knock on the door and work with me”. After the raid on February 28, Koresh told BATF agent Jim Cavanaugh in a telephone conversation, “It would have been better if you just called me up and talked to me. Then you could have come in and done your work”. Yes, the Davidians had many weapons. Possessing a weapon does not justify escalating to more lethal forms of enforcement without first trying non-violent methods of prosecution. Evidence shows that the military siege was planned two months before the investigation into the Branch Davidians ever began.
You may feel an instinct here to protest that if David Koresh and the Branch Davidians had behaved differently during the siege, things wouldn’t have turned out the way they did. The Davidians shouldn’t have picked up their weapons when 80 camouflaged agents and a helicopter raided their property unannounced. That it was Koresh’s fault, if he hadn’t been a crazy religious fanatic who was willing to die and take his followers with him, the standoff could have ended peacefully. You are free to have whatever opinions you want about how Koresh and the Branch Davidians conducted themselves during the siege.
But keep in mind that similar arguments are being made today about the behaviour of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. If only they had complied. If only they had minded their business. Alex Pretti shouldn’t have approached the police while carrying a firearm in its holster if he didn’t want to be shot 10 times. Renee Good should have assumed that the officers asking her to move along would feel threatened and shoot her in the head in self-defence when she started moving her car. We may feel there is a magnitude of difference in these actions, but some do not.
Of course, there are significant and meaningful differences between Alex Pretti and Renee Good and David Koresh. But David Koresh was not the only person who died at Waco. And in both cases, the government escalated and overreached in ways that cannot and should not be justified or accepted. It doesn’t really matter what you think about Waco. It matters what Republicans think of Waco. And they see the actions detailed above as an egregious and murderous assault by the government on American citizens exercising their rights. They understand Waco, they relate to it, they remember it.
Being in the minority, the Democratic Party can do very little on its own to curb the government’s current actions. They can utilize theatrics, something they have never been particularly good at, likely because they want to be seen as the adult in the room. Consider for a moment how Republican senators would be acting right now if a Democratic president sent masked, heavily armed agents into a red state for political reasons and murdered a licensed nurse and lawful gun owner while he tried to protect women. They would be crying bloody murder, demanding everyone involved be impeached and prosecuted.
They can obstruct, which they will likely do in blocking the six-bill appropriations package in the Senate, which is needed to fund the government. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has alerted Senate Majority Leader John Thune that the Democrats will happily pass five of the bills (funding the Departments of Defence, Labour, Health and Human Services, Education, and Transport, among others) if the Republicans drop the Homeland Security bill from the package. If Thune does not agree, the government will shut down until the ICE budget issue is resolved.
Or they can try to get Republicans to cooperate. A clear majority of Americans feel that Trump has failed in his second term as president. Only one in three believes his priorities are right. Republicans know they are in trouble. They are nervous about the midterms this year and the 2028 Presidential election. Ted Cruz was recently leaked complaining about Trump, Vance, and how their actions are imperilling the republicans at the upcoming election. It would take only 16 Republicans voting alongside Democrats to stop what Homeland Security are doing in Minneapolis. Twenty-three cooperative Republicans could lead to the impeachment and removal of Trump or almost any of his lackeys, including Kristi Noem.
Republicans can be made to see how the events that are happening today are analogous to what occurred at Waco. If voters in red states call their representatives and tell them their vote depends on their leaders standing up against government overreach, there is a chance Republicans will come to the table and save their party before it is too late.
The official death toll of the Mount Carmel Complex fire varies from source to source, but in all cases, it is more than 70 persons, consisting of at least 25 children, and two pregnant women.
