Former President Trump’s speech in Waco, Texas, sparked concerns over the signal it sent to right-wing extremists and a base that continues to believe the 2020 election was stolen. UC San Diego professor Barbara F. Walter and The Atlantic’s executive editor Adrienne LaFrance join Laura Barrón-López to discuss the extremist rhetoric that dominates Trump’s 2024 message.

Trump's anti-government rhetoric is part of a larger pattern by the former president and his allies to discredit and attack federal law enforcement and government institutions. Such threats could again result in violence, experts warn.

Barbara F. Walter is a professor at U.C. San Diego and expert in violent extremism. And Adrienne LaFrance, the executive editor of "The Atlantic." Her latest piece, "The New Anarchy," delves into the history of political violence in America.

Barbara and Adrienne, thank you so much for joining us.

Barbara, I want to start with you.

Trump just held his first big 2024 rally in Waco, Texas. What's the significance of holding it there?

Barbara F. Walter, Author, "How Civil Wars Start": Oh, well, this is the 30 year anniversary of the big siege that happened there, which, for many in the far right, especially those groups that are anti-federal government, they see this as the perfect example of government overreach, everything that's wrong with the federal government.

And, of course, Trump right now is facing an indictment by the federal government, which, to him, is the biggest threat to his future presidency, to his candidacy, to his life in some ways. So he is in a fight for his life, and the federal government is his enemy. Waco is the symbol to the far right of government overreach.

Laura Barrón-López:

And, Adrienne in your piece titled "New Anarchy," you explore years of political violence, some by militia groups in America and abroad.

And you focus heavily on violent clashes in Portland in 2020, you report, that were instigated by right-wing extremists. Do you think that those clashes in 2020 in Portland are a warning that they could potentially happen on a larger scale nationally?

Adrienne LaFrance, Executive Editor, "The Atlantic": I think that, when you talk to people in Portland, you hear some who would say that what happened there was really unique to Portland and not necessarily replicable.

But when you look at it sort of broadly, the sense that right-wing extremists can find a city that may be left-leaning, or disproportionately represented by left-leaning folks, and go there and sort of draw them out into violence, which is what happened in Portland, certainly, you can imagine that happening in other blue cities surrounded by red exurbs.

And so I think, more than that, though, it's less about replicating what happened in Portland and more just the sense that political violence is, by pretty much every measure, worsening in America, and paying attention to sort of the how that trend line is going and what we should be doing about it.