Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party's nomination for the U.S. presidency with an acceptance speech against the spectacular backdrop of the White House on Thursday, talking up his record over the past four years and attacking his Democratic rival Joe Biden. 

Trump, who broke convention by giving a campaign speech from the White House from a podium displaying the presidential seal, repeatedly cast his own vision against his perception of Democratic rival Joe Biden's plans, describing the November 3 vote as "the most important election in the history of our country."

"This election will decide whether we save the American dream, or whether we allow a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny," the Republican nominee said, attempting to turn the election into a choice between competing visions rather than a referendum on his first term. 

"Your vote will decide whether we protect law abiding Americans, or whether we give free reign to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens," he claimed, as protests continued in Wisconsin, a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast and wildfires spread in California. 

In an hour-long speech read from a teleprompter, the 74-year-old claimed a Biden administration would "completely dismantle and destroy" the American way of life. "Joe Biden is the destroyer of America's jobs and given the chance he will be the destroyer of America's greatness," the president said.

"America is not a land cloaked in darkness," he added in a rebuttal of the 77-year-old Biden's speech at the Democratic convention, "America is the torch that enlightens the entire world."

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Trump, who is trailing in the national polls to Biden by around seven points on average, made occasional attempts to reach out to undecided voters, but largely stuck to criticisms of his opponent – who he mentioned 41 times – and a defense of his record in office.  

Law and order

Trump attacked what he called the "Biden-Bernie manifesto," the Democratic policy platform, with a focus on law and order and claiming a Biden administration would pursue "the most extreme set of proposals" of any presidency.

Continuing a theme of the convention and pitching for suburban voters, the president warned that "no one will be safe in Biden's America."

Protests have raged in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a key battleground state, since a 29-year-old black man, Jacob Blake, was shot seven times in the back by a police officer on Sunday. 

Trump didn't mention Blake, but expressed support for the police and condemned "the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities." 

"Remember: every example of violence Donald Trump decries has happened on his watch. Under his leadership. During his presidency," Biden tweeted in response.

COVID-19 vaccine pledge

Trump directly addressed the COVID-19 pandemic, a subject largely ignored during the previous days of the Republican convention, claiming he is "focusing on the science, the facts and the data.”

"We are delivering lifesaving therapies and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year – or maybe even sooner," the president promised a crowd of 1,500 people, few of whom wore masks, seated closely together on the South Lawn.

Over 180,000 Americans have now died from the disease, but the president launched a strong defense of his handling of the pandemic. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released on Monday suggests only 31 percent of voters approve of his response to the outbreak. 

He said he had instigated "the largest national mobilization since World War II," and argued that before the pandemic he had created the strongest ever U.S. economy and said in a second term he would "make America greater than ever before." The U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 31.7 percent during the second quarter, the sharpest three-month drop on record. 

Biden's plan is to "surrender to the virus" and under the Democrat's leadership "hundreds of thousands more Americans" would have died, the Republican claimed. 

"The cost of the Biden shutdown would be measured in increased drug overdoses, depression, alcohol addiction, suicides, heart attacks, economic devastation, job loss and much more," the president argued.

Trump talked up his foreign policy accomplishments and claimed Biden was on the wrong side of every big decision in recent decades.

"Biden's record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime," the president said. "He has spent his entire career on the wrong side of history."