Slimline-looking Trump" rel="tag">Donald Trump arrives in Waco for first rally of 2024 campaign ... trends now

A slimmed down version of former President Trump left for Waco, Texas Saturday for the first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign, which was being riled up by rocker Ted Nugent, who called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a 'homosexual weirdo.' 

The former president, 76 but looking svelte in a navy suit, white shirt and no tie with an American flag pin at the West Palm Beach International Airport, is to hold a rally in Waco this afternoon. 

Nugent, who had three multi-platinum solo albums in the 1970s and has long been a supporter of conservative causes and President Trump, was railing against Washington for how they were spending his tax dollars. 

He even went as far to label Ukraine's President Zelensky a 'homosexual weirdo.'

Nugent was tasked with performing the national anthem for the rally - Trump's first in Texas of the 2024 presidential cycle.

But before he played his electric guitar version of the Star-Spangled Banner, Nugent addressed the crowd, telling them they were the 'real America.'

'I'm telling you the whole world sucks and America is catching up, but here in Waco, Texas with the real s**tkickers, this don't suck at all,' Nugent said.

Trump's holding of a rally in Waco is 'a statement — that he was sieged by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago and that they were accusing him of different things that aren't really true, just like David Koresh was accused by the FBI when they sieged him,' Koresh's successor, Pastor Charles Pace, told the New York Times.

Trump's campaign insisted the location and timing of the event had nothing to do with the Waco siege or anniversary. Instead, a spokesperson said the site was chosen because it was conveniently situated near four of the state's biggest metropolitan areas — Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio — and has the infrastructure to handle a sizable crowd.

The city is part of McLennan County, which Trump won in 2020 by more than 23 points. The airport where the rally is being held is 17 miles from the Branch Davidian compound.

The rally had already been in the works before it became clear that a grand jury in New York was drawing closer to a possible indictment as it investigates hush money payments made to women who alleged sexual encounters with Trump during the height of his 2016 campaign. Trump has denied the women's claims.

But the timing will give Trump an opportunity to demonstrate his continued popularity with the GOP base and to portray himself as the victim of a politically motivated 'witch hunt' as he campaigns for a second term in the White House.

The musician then turned his attention to the Trump supporters jailed for their participation on the January 6 Capitol attack.